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CDKfRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The 
Young Farmer 

Some Things He Should Know 



By 

THOMAS F. HUNT 



Imperial man ! Co-worker with the wind 
And rain and light and heat and cold, and all 
The agencies of God to feed and clothe 
And render beautiful and glad the world ! 

— Stock ard 



NEW YORK 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

LONDON 

Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Limited 
1912 






Copyright. 1912, by 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

All Rights Reserved 



Entered at Stationers' Hall 
LONDON, ENGLAND 



Printed in U. S. A. 



©CI.A327608 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I Essentials of Success i 

II Means of Acquiring Land .... 14 

III Farm Organization 31 

IV Opportunities in Agriculture ... 44 
V Where to Locate 57 

VI Size of Farm 64 

VII Selection of Farm 71 

VIII The Farm Scheme SS' 

IX The Rotation of Crops loi 

X The Equipment 109 

XI How to Estimate Profits 117 

XII Grain and Hay Farming 135 

XIII The Cost of Farming Operations . . 148 

XIV The Place of Intensive Farming . .162 
XV Reasons for Animal Husbandry . . . 172 

Xyi Returns from Animals 185 

XVII Farm Labor 195 

XVIII Shipping 210 

XIX Marketing 220 

XX Laws Affecting Land and Labor . . 233 

XXI Rural Legislation 248 

XXII Rural Forces 268 



THE YOUNG FARMER: 
SOME THINGS HE SHOULD KNOW 



CHAPTER I 
ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

COLUMELLA, the much traveled 
Spanish-Roman writer of the first 
century A. D., said that for successful 
farming three things are essential: knowl- 
edge, capital and love for the calling. This 
statement is just as true today as it was when- 
written 1900 years ago by this early writer 
on European agriculture. 

Every man who loves the calling and haa 
an ambition to become a successful farmer 
should understand that no two of these 
essentials are sufficient, but that all three 
are necessary. Although this is so simple 
as to be almost axiomatic, it is indeed sur- 
prising how few people believe a knowl- 
edge of farming is really essential to success. 

America is strewn with cases of failure, 
in farming, by men investing capital ac- 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

quired in other business. In nine cases out 
of ten failure has been due to lack of knowl- 
edge of farming. 

There is known to the writer an expert 
mineralogist and metallurgist. On the sub- 
ject of coal and gold mining he can give 
the most valuable information. His advice 
is constantly sought on all such matters. 
Instead of investing his money in mining, 
on which he is a recognized authority, he 
has invested it in a farm, about which he 
knows next to nothing. He has not even 
had the advantage of being raised on a farm, 
since his father was a railroad man. 

A mechanical engineer remarked that if 
he had $25,0x30 he would invest it in a farm. 
This man is supposed to be an expert in 
business methods as applied to manufactur- 
ing in general, and he is especially con- 
versant with the manufacture and trade in 
automobiles. About all he has seen of 
farming he has observed from the window 
of a Pullman car or from the steering wheel 
of an automobile. Instead of investing his 
earnings in some manufacturing business, 

2 



ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

about which he has spent years of study 
and in which he has had some training, he 
would invest it in farming, of which he has 
only the most rudimentary knowledge, if 
only he had sufficient capital. As a matter 
of fact, he is more in need of knowledge 
than of capital. 

Even farmers of experience do not always 
realize the training required to succeed in 
farming. A letter was received by the dean 
of a certain agricultural college saying that 
a graduate of another agricultural college 
had taken one of the poorest farms in his 
neighborhood and was raising better pota- 
toes than anyone else could raise. The let- 
ter asked that information be sent by return 
mail as to how this young man could be 
beaten in raising potatoes. Of course the 
answer had to be sent that while informa- 
tion upon raising potatoes could easily be 
supplied, although not in the limits of an 
ordinary letter, the training in observation, 
judgment and reasoning faculties essential 
to meet the daily problems as they arise 
could not be supplied. 

3 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

There is no objection to men of other 
vocations adopting farming as an avocation 
if they can afford it. It is a rational form of 
pleasure for wealthy people, and one in 
which they can often be of great service. 
This cannot be said of all forms of relaxa- 
tion. Wealthy men have been of special 
service to the cause of agriculture by pro- 
moting the breeding of improved live stock. 
Men in other callings should clearly under- 
stand, however, that if they have a farm 
merely as a place to spend a week end, that 
they may expect to find the financial returns 
unsatisfactory. 

To no one is there more significance in the 
old school aphorism "knowledge is power" 
than to the young man who is to become a 
farmer. While it is not necessary to be 
educated in schools in order to gain knowl- 
edge, yet the schoolroom with all its limita- 
tions is usually the most economical and 
most efficient method of acquiring certain 
forms of knowledge essential to every suc- 
cessful man or woman. A farm-to-farm 
canvass of a certain region of the state of 

4 



ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

New York discloses the fact that farmers 
with college training are obtaining a higher 
income from their farms than those whose 
school days ended with high school. Simi- 
larly, those who have finished the high 
school are more prosperous financially than 
those who never advanced beyond the 
grades. The investigation showed, for 
example, that with the farmers under 
observation the high school education was 
equivalent to $6,000 worth of 5% bonds. 
Farming is an occupation requiring keen 
observation, sound judgment and accurate 
reasoning, all attributes which are strength- 
ened greatly by proper education. This is 
so true that many men, perhaps most men, 
are forty before they have grasped the 
problems which the truly successful farmer 
must solve. 

A considerable part of the knowledge 
essential to success in any pursuit is acquired 
by actually working at the occupation, or, 
as we say, by practical experience. Some 
features of any occupation can be obtained 
in no other way. A preliminary education 

5 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

may, however, greatly reduce the time 
necessary to acquire even this practical ex- 
perience. For example, a course in shop 
vs^ork as taught in technical high schools and 
colleges, requiring two hours a day for five 
months, may shorten the time of apprentice- 
ship by one or more years, in acquiring the 
trade of carpenter or iron worker. In the 
same manner a course in butter making, 
cheese making or floriculture, may shorten 
the time required to obtain the necessary 
practical details by ten months or even 
more. Eventually, also, the man thus 
trained will be the better man. 

If the industrial activities of the world 
be divided into farming, mining, manufac- 
turing, trade and transportation, it will be 
noted at once that farming is the only one 
which deals with living things. In fact, the 
definition of agriculture, in its broadest 
sense, is the economic production of' living 
things. The farmer is thus brought face to 
face with some of the most difficult and in- 
tricate problems with which the human race 
has to grapple. It is this fact that makes 

6 



ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

farming, in some ways, the most uncertain as 
well as the most fascinating occupation 
known to man. The fact that the farmer 
is dealing with living things puts his occu- 
pation in a class by itself for a number of 
reasons, one of which is germane to the sub- 
ject of this chapter. 

-^In most occupations a larger part of the 
knowledge necessary to success can be 
acquired by doing than is the case in farm- 
ing.\ Locomotive engineers are trained for 
their responsible duty while firing the 
engine. The brakeman becomes a conduc- 
tor by assisting the latter. A bank cashier 
is usually a promoted bank clerk. Each 
obtained the knowledge essential to success 
largely by oft-repeated performance. 

While, of course, there is much the 
farmer can learn only by experience, there 
are many things essential to his success that 
the mere performance of the necessary 
farm operations will not teach him. Spread- 
ing manure will never teach him that stable 
manure should be supplemented with phos- 
phoric acid in order to get the best results. 

7 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

The growing of clover will not teach him 
that mineral fertilizer may keep up the fer- 
tility of the soil where clover grows luxu- 
riantly and occurs in the rotation at definite 
intervals. Feeding cattle will not teach him 
that a good ration for milch cows is one con- 
taining one pound of digestible protein to 
seven pounds of digestible carbohydrates, 
provided it is palatable and, at least, two- 
thirds of the total ration is digestible. Nor 
will the feeding of such a ration teach the 
farmer how to calculate the most economi- 
cal ration from feeding stuffs at current 
prices. The cause of potato blight and the 
methods of combating it cannot be learned 
from the operation of planting and cultivat- 
ing potatoes. 

These are only a few illustrations — they 
might be multiplied indefinitely — to show 
that farming is peculiar in that perform- 
ance of the daily duties does not give the 
knowledge essential to success in the same 
measure that it does in such occupations as 
banking, trade and transportation. Yet, 
curiously enough, while no man would 

8 



ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

undertake to run a locomotive engine or 
perform the duties of cashier of a bank 
without thorough training, there are many 
who will undertake to farm without educa- 
tion or knowledge of the business. 

The young man who intends to become a 
farmer should fully understand that if 
farming is not a business worthy of a thor- 
oughly educated man, it is not a business 
worthy of him; because every young man 
is worthy of a thorough education, provided 
he is a man of clean habits and good pur- 
poses. ^Do not allow yourself to be per- 
suaded that you lack ability to acquire a 
good education. All you require is oppor- 
tunity, determination and honesty of inten- 
tion. 

Farming is worthy, moreover, of the 
most highly educated as well as the most 
capable. If lack of means prevents a young 
man from taking a four-years' training in 
agriculture, he will find a two years' course 
offered by many of the state agricultural 
schools. While it is obviously impossible 
to give in two years as much training as in 

9 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

four years, these two years' courses contain 
the more technical subjects and are usually 
very thorough and efficient. No young 
man, no matter how thorough his previous 
training, need hesitate to pursue one of 
them. 

There are, however, young men who can- 
not spare the time and expense of even two 
years' training. For such many state agri- 
cultural colleges offer winter terms of eight 
to twelve weeks. These courses are arranged 
to allow the student to specialize along 
some particular line. The better prepared 
the man is who enters these winter courses 
the more he will benefit by them. This 
leads to the caution that such courses should 
not be substituted for the education offered 
in the public schools, but should only be 
sought after all the opportunities for educa- 
tion at home have been exhausted. 

For the somewhat older young man who 
is now farming and cannot leave his farm 
or for the younger man as a preparation 
for the short courses, one or more corre- 
spondence courses will be found useful. Not 

10 



ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

all colleges conduct correspondence courses, 
but fortunately those who do will accept 
students from other states on equal terms. 
There are many persons who will testify to 
their helpfulness. 

Every young farmer should have a care- 
fully selected library of standard books on 
agriculture, not only for reading but for 
reference. An instance of the value of a 
standard book of reference came recently 
to the attention of the writer. An educated 
young farmer in Iowa paid $2.50 for a peck 
of crimson clover seed which he sowed in 
the spring in his oats. A reference to any 
standard publication on forage crops cost- 
ing less than the peck of seed would have 
disclosed to him the probable hopelessness 
of success under the conditions named. 

The books to include as well as to exclude 
from a select list will depend upon the 
previous training of the man making the 
purchase, the character of the farming to be 
pursued, and, to some extent, to the section 
of the country where the farm is located. 
Any bookseller can secure catalogs issued by 

1 1 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

firms making a specialty of publishing agri- 
cultural books. For the average reader 
these catalogs are sufficient to enable one to 
make intelligent purchases. 

Every farmer should take one or more 
agricultural journals. At present journals 
are published on every phase of agriculture 
and many of them are of high character. 
Publishers are always glad to send sample 
copies free of charge. By examining these 
copies intelligent selection may be made. 

The writer of this book has had rather 
unusual opportunity during more than a 
quarter of a century of observing the influ- 
ence of education upon the success, financial 
and otherwise, of those who engage in farm- 
ing. As the result of these observations he 
wishes to urge every young man to allow no 
one to persuade him that because he is to 
be a farmer, he does not need a thorough 
education. Remember that you have but 
one life to live, and if you let the golden 
opportunity pass, the mistake can never be 
rectified. No man ever regretted that he 

12 



ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

had too much education — thousands have 
regretted the lack of it. 

Every young man, no matter what his 
occupation is to be, should receive some 
school training, however little it may be, 
every year until he reaches the age of major- 
ity. Otherwise the age of majority should 
be changed. In no occupation is this more 
important than in farming, because the 
operations involved in farming fail to de- 
velop certain attributes necessary to the 
largest success. 

A man cannot have a mind too well 
trained, although it is possible that he may 
have too much undigested information. The 
mental condition may not be unlike the 
physical condition of the man who is bur- 
dened with too many clothes. When in 
action he may need to strip his mind of un- 
necessary information in order to make the 
most efficient mental effort. 



13 



o 



CHAPTER II 

MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

F the three essentials to successful farm- 
ing — capital, knowledge and love for 
the calling — only the first can be obtained on 
credit, and this only in part. Usually when 
a man desires to buy a farm he must have, 
at least, one-third of his desired investment 
in cash. The amount to be invested will 
include, not only the cost of the land, but 
the cost of the necessary equipment of the 
farm. The percentage of the total capital 
which may be borrowed, however, will de- 
pend on many circumstances and is usually 
a matter of first importance. No man 
should borrow more than a banker or other 
reputable business man considers a safe in- 
vestment. 

Usually there is no better counselor as to 
a safe investment than the local banker. 
The banker should, and generally does, 
stand in much the same relation to the 
financial welfare of the community as the 

14 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

physician to its physical, the minister to its 
moral and spiritual welfare. The inexperi- 
enced person, even if he does not need to 
borrow money, would do well to consult 
some responsible banker in the neighbor- 
hood before making an investment in farm 
lands. 

The young man should, as early as possi- 
ble in life, open an account with the local 
bank, not merely for the sake of the habit of 
saving which this will encourage, but in 
order to come into personal business rela- 
tions with the banker. Instead of conceal- 
ing from the bank his business operations, 
he should seek the advice of his banker on 
all important financial matters. 

On an average, every farm changes hands 
at least three times in a century. Every 
farm, therefore, must be acquired by pur- 
chase, inheritance or gift at more or less 
irregular intervals. In the neighborhood 
in which the author was born, there is not a 
farm but has changed hands since he can 
remember. In many cases the farm is now 
in the possession of a son; in some instances 
1.5 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

in that of a grandson of the owner as known 
by the writer in his boyhood days. In this 
particular community the acquirement of a 
farm by a person not related to the former 
owner has occurred in relatively few 
instances. 

As a rule, when the farm has been 
acquired by a son, the latter has operated 
the farm as tenant or partner for a period 
previous to his ownership and during life- 
time of the father. In some instances the 
son has boarded with the parents or the par- 
ents with the son and his wife; or, in the 
case of a daughter, with the daughter and 
son-in-law. 

Where there are several heirs, as is apt 
to be the case, the son operating the farm is 
required to purchase or rent the interest of 
the other heirs, unless the farm is large 
enough to be divided, which is less seldom 
the case than is popularly supposed. Thus, 
if there are 200 acres of land worth $50 an 
acre, and five heirs, the young farmer may 
inherit $2,000, and be required to assume 
the remaining $8,000 as an obligation. He 

16 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

may borrow this money at the bank, placing 
a mortgage upon the farm, thus settling 
with the other heirs at once. Or he may 
pay the other heirs rent on their share of the 
farm. In any case he will, if successful, 
gradually cancel his obligation and become 
owner of the farm. That no heir is willing 
to assume this responsibility is the most 
common reason for a farm changing from 
one family to another, and the disruption of 
community interests. 

/The customary, or normal, method of 
acquiring land has been and still is a com- 
bination of tenancy, inheritance and mort- 
gage. Without some tenant system and 
without the farm mortgage, it would be 
impossible for the average young man to 
acquire a farm. That men are constantly 
advancing from farm tenant to landowner 
is shown by statistics giving the percentage 
of tenants by ages. The majority of farmers 
under 30 are renters. Most farmers over 
45 are owners of farm land. Thus in 
Illinois, in 1900, approximately 75% of the 
farmers under 25 years of age rented their 
17 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

farms, while less than 26% of the farmers 
over 55 years of age were tenants. 
/ The question for the young man to con- 
sider is not what effect the tenant system 
has upon the welfare of the nation or what 
political ills may be connected with farm 
mortgages, but how to make use of these 
necessary and beneficent agencies for the 
acquirement of a farm. A system of tenancy 
which leads to absent landlordism and a 
permanent tenant class is thoroughly 
vicious, while a practice which enables a 
man to become, within a reasonable period, 
a land-owning farmer is a thoroughly ap- 
provable and, indeed, necessary method of 
acquiring land. 

As already indicated, most young men 
will need in some form or other to employ 
more capital than they possess when they 
start farming. They must, therefore, 
determine what is the best form of obtain- 
ing the necessary capital, viz. : whether to 
borrow the money on a farm mortgage, or 
whether to use the capital someone else has 
invested in a farm by paying him rent for it. 

18 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

The conditions of tenancy in this country 
are often not the most fortunate, yet the 
young man of character may well find, for 
a time, at least, it would be best for him to 
rent a farm and invest his own capital in the 
necessary machinery and live stock to con- 
duct it properly. 

Much will depend on the character of the 
arrangement which may be made. Usually 
more favorable terms can be secured from 
landlords owning large numbers of farms 
than from the owner of one or two farms. 
The large landowner is content with a 
moderate income from each farm, because 
in the aggregate his income is sufficient for 
his needs, while the retired farmer who 
must live off the proceeds of a single farm 
is apt to drive a hard bargain and may not 
be over particular concerning the main- 
tenance of said farm. The writer knows a 
farmer who owns a good farm purchased 
from the proceeds of a rented farm. He 
continues to live on the rented farm and 
rents his own, because, it is said, his land- 
19 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

lord is willing to make him more favorable 
terms than he makes to his tenant. 
/The rnpre capable the tenant the more 
favorable the terms he may exact. Certain 
tenants are in demand and can have their 
choice of farms. , A prosperous-looking 
man was pointed out recently as an example 
of a tenant capable of buying a farm in one 
of the most highly developed counties in the 
United States. It was stated that as a renter 
he could have his choice of any farm in 
the county, but that he did not have a dollar 
invested in farm land. Possibly he invests 
his surplus earnings in stocks and bonds. 

It is not the present purpose to determine 
the relative merits of the different systems of 
land tenure, but to try to be helpful to the 
beginners by discussing the usual practices 
in order that he may know whether the 
arrangement he is considering is customary 
and whether it is likely to prove satisfactory. 

Every third farm in the United States is 
rented under one of three methods: 

I. A definite money rent may be paid, 
ranging from $2 to $6 an acre for land on 
20 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

which the ordinary, staple crops are raised. 
Perhaps $3 to $4 is more commonly paid 
for such land. 

2. In the South it is common for the land- 
lord to require a definite number of pounds 
of cotton per acre or a certain number of 
bales of cotton for a one or two-mule farm, 
as the case may be. This is classi- 
fied by the census authorities as "cash 
rent," but will here be called "crop 
rent." Crop rent is less common than either 
cash or share rent in the northern and west- 
ern states, although perhaps the most com- 
mon form in the South. Crop rent, how- 
ever, is met with in some sections, as in 
western New York where certain large land- 
owners require a definite number of bushels 
of wheat, oats or maize and make certain 
stipulations as to hay and straw. They 
charge a cash rent for pasture. 

3. Much the most common form of ten- 
ancy, however, is that where a certain per- 
centage or share of the product is given the 
landlord for the use of the land. 

21 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Before entering into a discussion of the 
customary conditions under which land is 
rented on shares it may be helpful to point 
out the fundamental differences between 
cash rent, crop rent and share rent. In case 
of cash rent, the landlord takes no risk, 
either as to the price or the amount of 
product. In the case of crop rent, he shares 
the risk as to the variation in price, but not 
as to the amount of crop raised. The latter 
may depend upon the clemency of the 
weather or upon the industry and skill of 
the. tenant. In the case of share rent, both 
landlord and tenant share equally as to 
variation in the price and the amount of 
product. 

Three forms of share rent may be recog- 
nized: 

(a) Where landlord furnishes only real 
estate (land and buildings), the tenant sup- 
plying everything else, including teams, 
machinery, labor, seeds and fertilizers. 
Under these conditions it is customary for 
the landlord to receive one-third and the 

22 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

tenant two-thirds of the crop raised or the 
product produced. 

(b) The second form of share rent is 
where the landlord furnishes the real estate; 
the tenant supplies teams, tools and labor, 
while the landlord and tenant own equally 
all live stock other than teams, and bear 
equally all other expenses, as for seeds, fer- 
tilizers and cost of threshing. Under this 
system, it is customary for landlord and 
tenant each to receive one-half of all sales. 
As each owns one-half of all the live stock 
(teams excepted), each shares equally in all 
increase. The landlord pays for the cost 
of permanent improvements such as new 
buildings, fences, repairs and drainage. 
The tenant, in making these improvements, 
in some cases, agrees to furnish two days' 
labor for one day's pay. The theory is that, 
while the increased value of the real estate 
is of advantage only to the landlord, the 
improved facilities are of some benefit to 
the tenant. Since he can do this work at odd 
times when not otherwise employed, he can 
afford to take a generous view of the mat- 

23 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

ter. It is obvious that if he remains on the 
farm long enough the tenant will come into 
his share of the benefit, while if he intends 
to leave the farm soon he may not. There 
is in the mind of the writer a pros- 
perous tenant who, after eighteen years 
on a single farm, declared he had no desire 
to make a change, and doubtless there are 
thousands of similar instances. 

Under the plan in which the tenant fur- 
nishes everything except the real estate, the 
tendency of the farm is apt to be downward 
both as to the improvements and the crop- 
producing power of the soil. The interests 
of the landlord and tenant are not mutual. 
This condition of tenancy leads to growing 
only those crops which can be readily sold 
from the farm and to frequent changes of 
the tenant, with its accompanying auction 
sales of property. In one region, where 
this system prevails, it has been facetiously 
remarked that each tenant has a sale every 
year to determine how much he is worth. 
It is less trouble than taking an inventory. 

In the second form of share rent, the in- 

24 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

terests of landlord and tenant are more 
nearly mutual. Under this system, animal 
husbandry is possible, which, generally, 
involves pasturing and feeding a consider- 
able part of the crops upon the farm, and 
even the purchase of nitrogenous by- 
products. All this leads to permanency of 
tenant, since the landlord and tenant are 
both interested in the live stock and other 
personal property, which cannot be divided, 
with economy, each year. It is interesting 
to note that the house is the least likely to be 
kept in repair. The improvement of the 
barns and fences or the laying of tile drains 
increases the landlord's income, but he has 
no financial interest in the house, so long as 
the tenant is willing to live in it. 

There are, of course, many variations in 
the arrangement of details between the land- 
lord and tenant. On many dairy farms in 
the northeastern states it is customary for 
the landlord to own the cows. While the 
landlord and tenant share equally from the 
sale of milk, butter or cheese, in such cases 
the increase in the herd belongs to the 

25 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

owner of the land. Hence, money from the 
sale of any animal, old or young, goes to 
him. This is because the landlord must 
keep up the herd. If a cow is sold, he must 
furnish another to take her place. 

(c) The third type of tenant farming is 
where the tenant furnishes nothing but his 
labor and managerial ability, and receives 
a share of the sales, which may be one-third. 
This is rather an unusual type of tenancy, 
since, where the landlord furnishes all the 
capital, it is much more common to employ 
a farm manager at a monthly wage. The 
wage varies greatly, but is seldom below 
forty dollars or above seventy-five dollars 
per month without board, especially to 
those who have not hitherto had much 
managerial experience. 

Various attempts at profit sharing have 
been made. A recent instance is of a young 
married man taking i6o acres of tillable 
land where the landlord has a fairly well- 
stocked farm. The young man is to have a 
house and everything in the way of living 
the farm can furnish. He is to receive $20 
26 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

a month and one-half the net proceeds, or, 
what is called in Chapter XI, the farm 
income. In considering a contract of this 
kind it is necessary to make a careful dis- 
tinction between: (i) Gross sales, (2) net 
proceeds, viz.: the gross sales less the ex- 
penses of running the farm, and (3) profits, 
which may be defined for the purpose of 
this discussion as the net proceeds less the 
interest on the investment.* 

Assuming 160 acres of land, all tillable, 
devoted to dairy farming in eastern United 
States, gross sales may be estimated at $20 
an acre, or an annual gross income of $3,200, 
and the net proceeds at $10 an acre, or 
$1,600. Under these conditions the young 
man's income would be $240, received as 
wages, plus $800, as his share of the net 
proceeds, or a total of $1,040 a year. 

Generally speaking, probably a more 
satisfactory method, both for landlord and 
the farm manager, would be to pay the 
latter as nearly as may be what his services 

*Profit is sometimes defined as that part of the product 
which the producer can consume without reducing his means 
of production. 

27 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

should be worth and give him in addition 
one-half the profits; that is, one-half of that 
which was left after deducting the expenses 
of running the farm and interest on the cap- 
ital invested. 

Merely for illustrating the method of 
calculation, let us assume this farm with its 
equipment to be worth $ioo an acre, or 
$16,000. Let the farm manager be paid 
$840 a year. Assume the same gross in- 
come, $3,200, and the same cost of operat- 
ing, $1,600, to which add $600, the addi- 
tional salary of the manager. The total 
expense is then $2,200, and the net proceeds 
$1,000. If 4%, or $640, was charged on the 
investment, there would be $360 to be 
divided between landlord and manager, 
making the salary of manager $1,020. A 
simple calculation will show that if ^% 
were charged, the salary of the manager 
would be $940 a year, and if 6%, $860 a 
year. The advantage of the latter method 
of employment is that the young man runs 
less risk, while both receive equally any 

28 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND 

surplus beyond fair wages and fair interest 
on the investment. 

In this connection it is important to con- 
sider how much may be reasonably paid for 
managerial ability. A study of the figures 
on page 133 will show that the labor income 
from a considerable number of farms of the 
better class was about 7% of the capital 
invested in the farms. The inference is, 
therefore, that if a man has $10,000 wisely 
invested in a farm he may pay $700 for a 
working manager; or, to put it in another 
form, before the owner of a farm can afford 
to pay $1,200 a year for a farm manager, 
he should have about $17,000 invested. 
Moreover, this investment must be in a form 
calculated to return an income. If part of 
it consists of investments for pleasure or 
fancy, such investment will not only not add 
to the income, but will detract from it by 
increasing the cost of maintenance. 

This is scarcely less important to the em- 
ployee than it is to the employer, since if 
the owner pays a higher salary than the 
manager can earn, he quite surely will 

2Q 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

sooner or later discharge his manager. This 
may result disastrously for the discharged 
young man, not merely on account of the 
loss of employment, but because his failure 
may militate against his securing satisfac- 
tory employment elsewhere. When an em- 
ployer is seeking a man, he looks for one 
who has succeeded. There is an old saying, 
"Nothing succeeds like success," and it is 
only too true that nothing fails like failure. 



30 



CHAPTER III 
FARM ORGANIZATION 

IN the last chapter were discussed the 
most common methods by which a young 
man acquires an opportunity to engage in 
farming. This chapter will discuss some 
less common arrangements by which may be 
bridged that period between the time the 
son is ready to go into the business and the 
time he may assume the complete control 
of the ancestral or other farm. It will also' 
suggest a method for the continuous business 
management of a farm enterprise. 

As stated, the most common reason for a 
farm changing from one family to another 
is the fact that no heir is willing to assume 
the obligation which is involved in paying 
for the interest of the other heirs. Con- 
nected with this problem is the further fact 
that the father is not usually ready to give 
up the management of the farm at the time 
one of his sons reaches the age to go into 
active business. 

31 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

The reason for this state of affairs is made 
clear by the results of insurance statistics. 
The period that a man may be expected to 
live can be obtained by taking the difference 
between his present age and 90 and dividing 
the remainder by two. Thus, a young man 
who is 20 may reasonably expect to live 35 
years, or until he is 55 years old. A man at 
50, however, still has an expectation of life 
of 20 years, and the man of 70 of 10 years. 

A farmer of 50 will usually have one or 
more sons ready to go to farming if they 
ever expect to engage in farming. But, as 
has been shown, a man of 50 has a reason- 
able expectation of 20 more years of life and 
cannot turn over the farm to his son, com- 
pletely, without destroying his own oppor- 
tunity for earning a livelihood. As things 
are usually arranged, therefore, there is no 
place on the average farm for the son, except 
as a hired hand, which is not desired per- 
manently by either father or son. 

Frequently the father fails to appreciate 
the earning power of his son, and, what is 
more important, that the boy has grown 
32 



FARM ORGANIZATION 

into a man. One day a teacher called a 
student of agriculture to his office, when 
the following conversation occurred: 

''The Bureau of Soils at Washington," 
said the teacher, "has asked me to recom- 
mend several of our students to them for 
positions as field assistants. If you desire 
to have me do so, I would be glad to 
recommend you for one of these positions. 
The compensation is $i,ooo a year and field 
expenses." 

"I do not believe that I can accept," said 
Mr. Manning, "my father is in poor health 
and needs my help on the farm." 

"Does your father want you to take 
charge of the farm and manage it so that 
you can make your training count?" 

"No; my father expects to continue to 
manage the farm. He wishes me to work 
for him." 

"How much does your father expect to 
pay you?" 

"Thirty dollars a month." 

The teacher found it extremely difficult 
not to interfere, but he merely said, "This 

33 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

is a case of filial duty which you must settle 
for yourself. I must have nothing further 
to say." 

The young man returned to the ancestral 
home and is probably still there. It is, of 
course, impossible to determine the merits 
of an individual case, but this incident rep- 
resents a type of cases where the son makes 
two important sacrifices from the sense of 
duty. 

First, he sacrifices present, and, perhaps, 
future opportunity to earn the wages of 
which he is capable and to which he is 
justly entitled. And, second, and more im- 
portant, he sacrifices the opportunity to 
develop his own powers and make concrete 
his own abstract self. 

There are two things that every young 
man should do. One is to earn a living. A 
man that cannot or does not earn a living is 
of no value to himself or to anyone else. 
The other is to develop within himself his 
latent possibilities. He must apply himself 
to some problem, or problems, and through 
them develop his own personality. There 

34 



FARM ORGANIZATION 

is no place where more intricate and satis- 
fying problems may be found than in the 
development of a successful farming enter- 
prise. In the instance cited, the father may 
have been unable to pay his son the wage he 
might have obtained elsewhere, but he did 
not need to dwarf his son's development by 
treating him merely as a hired hand. His 
willingness to do so was probably due to his 
failure to appreciate that his son had be- 
come a man. 

Sometimes a father is astute enough to 
reorganize his business so as to retain a 
place for himself while giving to his sons 
that opportunity which every man must 
have who develops himself normally. 

An Ohio farmer once came to the Dean's 
office. He had a son in college who was 
just completing the first year of a two years' 
course in agriculture. 

"I should like to have you find a place 
for my son in a cheese factory during the 
coming summer," said Mr. McKinley. 

"I own a farm of 130 acres on which I 
have a herd of Jersey cattle," continued the 

35 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

father. ''I have two sons and one daughter. 
I would like to have my sons about me, but 
there is no place for them on my farm be- 
cause I am there and cannot get away. In 
fact, I do not desire to give up the manage- 
ment of the farm and the development of 
the herd of cattle." 

"Not every father sees the situation as 
clearly as you do," interjected the Dean. 

"This is my plan. After my son has spent 
a summer in a cheese factory, I want him 
to come back to your school for another 
year. I want him to learn, especially, all 
you teach about dairying. I will then build a 
cheese factory on my own farm and my son 
will make into cheese the milk of my own 
herd, and also from the herds of our neigh- 
bors. By the time he has completed his 
work with you, my younger son will have 
finished the high school. He has some lik- 
ing for trading, and he will sell the cheese 
at wholesale and deliver it to the surround- 
ing towns where markets are unexcelled. 
As for the daughter," continued this prac- 

36 



FARM ORGANIZATION 

tical man, "she will get married and that 
will take care of her." 

What became of the daughter is not 
known to the writer, but the rest of the pro- 
gram was carried out successfully and con- 
tinued for many years. 

A German came to this country and set- 
tled in New Jersey, where he established a 
large orchard. In course of time his two 
sons grew into manhood. While, of course, 
requiring plenty of laborers, the orchard- 
ist did not need the sons in the management 
of his farm. He, therefore, established one 
of these sons in the commission business in 
Philadelphia, thus, at least, keeping the 
profits on the sale of the products of his 
orchard in the family. He also needed cold 
storage for his fruit. The other son started 
a cold storage plant, which plays an impor- 
tant part in the profitable management of 
the orchard. Thus both sons have inde- 
pendent employment requiring managerial 
ability and the orchard is much more profit- 
able than it otherwise would be. 

Our land laws, our traditions and our 

37 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

practices are based upon the idea that a farm 
is to provide activity and support for but one 
family. In order, therefore, that the son 
may marry and begin to develop his life in 
his own way, it is essential to reorganize in 
some manner the method of managing the 
farm or to enlarge or, perhaps, specialize 
its activities. This may be accomplished on 
a simple partnership basis, or it may be in 
some such line as outlined in the illustra- 
tions which have been given. In other occu- 
pations such co-operative efifort is the rule 
rather than the exception. That it is more 
difficult to effect satisfactory arrangements 
in farming must be conceded, else they 
would be more common. Doubtless it will 
often tax the ingenuity of father and son to 
devise the plans best suited to meet their 
particular problem. 

There still remains to consider another 
form of business relation as applied to 
farming which has become almost universal 
in trade and transportation. The following 
incident may illustrate and emphasize the 
problem better than abstract discussion: 

38 



FARM ORGANIZATION 

One day a man walked into an office and 
stated that a friend had a half million dol- 
lars to invest in farming, provided that he 
could be convinced that the money would 
be invested profitably. 

"Does your friend desire to buy land in 
any particular locality?" 

"Yes," replied the promoter, "he wishes 

to buy land near . He has some 

sentiment about it. He was born in that 
neighborhood." 

"Well, that is a rather bad beginning. 
Farming on sentiment is dangerous, espe- 
cially when the sentiment is in no way re- 
lated to the business." 

The facts were that the region indicated 
was recognized to be one of the most 
unpromising sections of the state. 

"If you undertake to invest a half million 
dollars in one neighborhood," continued the 
adviser, "you will pretty certainly fail to 
earn interest on your investment." 

"Why?" inquired the promoter. 

"Before you could possibly buy any con- 
siderable part of the land the owners of the 

39 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

farms you desire to buy would have 
doubled or perhaps trebled the price asked 
for their holdings. It is one "thing to earn 
interest on an investment of $30 an acre and 
quite another to earn an equal per cent on 
$60 or $90 an acre. 

"In the second place, farmers are content 
to accept less per cent on their capital than 
they would if it was loaned at interest, 
because the farm furnishes a home as well 
as a business. When you buy up all these 
farms and convert them into a single enter- 
prise you will destroy their home value. 
You cannot hope to compete with the man, 
who, because his farm furnishes him a 
home, is content with an otherwise small 
return on his investment." 

There were other reasons, of course, why 
such an enterprise would fail, which the 
speaker did not stop to explain. 

"You are mistaken," challenged the 
promoter. "I intend to meet both your 
objections. My plan is to form a corpora- 
tion and issue both preferred and common 
stock. The preferred stock shall bear 5^ 
40 



FARM ORGANIZATION 

and that will belong to my friend who fur- 
nishes the money. I will retain the common 
stock. Five per cent is all the owner of the 
money is entitled to, while if the business 
returns more than that amount, it will be 
due to my management. I, and those asso- 
ciated with me, are entitled to all that is 
made above five per cent. By retaining the 
common stock the surplus income will come 
to us. Neither will I destroy the home 
value, because I shall associate the former 
owners with me in the conduct of the estate 
and may give them some of the common 
stock, so that they will be interested with me 
in making a profitable return. If they wish 
to keep their money invested in the farm, 
they will be given preferred stock in place 
of cash for their farms." 

It is needless to say that the promoter 
never convinced his friend that he could 
successfully invest for him a half million 
dollars along the lines indicated. Never- 
theless the corporate plan is not without 
merit. For example, if a father should in- 
corporate his farm, he could provide for 

41 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

the inheritance of the preferred stock, 
among the heirs, as he desires. He could 
give to the son who operates the farm all 
the common stock, together with what pre- 
ferred stock he is entitled or the father may 
desire him to have. The common stock 
would provide the means by which the 
income from the farm, which was due to 
the son's skill and management, might go 
to him. As time went on the son could 
acquire additional preferred stock from the 
father or other heirs, or he could invest his 
earnings elsewhere, as might seem most ex- 
pedient. On the death of the parents, the 
preferred stock would be distributed as 
inheritance or the will provided without in 
any way interfering with the continuity of 
the farm enterprise. If at any time the son 
desired to discontinue the management of 
the farm, all he would need to do would be 
to dispose of his interest in the common 
stock at whatever he might be able to secure 
from the man who succeeded to its manage- 
ment. He could sell or retain his preferred 
stock. 

42 



FARM ORGANIZATION 

Farming is the one remaining great 
industry that has not been organized so that 
a single enterprise may have a continuous 
existence. A corporation never dies, but at 
least three generations of men occupy the 
farms of the United States each century. 



43 



CHAPTER IV 

OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICUL- 
TURE 

SOME years ago, a prominent magazine 
contained an article entitled "The 
American Farmer's Balance Sheet," in 
which a descendant of the second and sixth 
Presidents of the United States was shown 
to have made in one year a profit of over 
$19,000 from a 6,000-acre wheat farm in 
North Dakota, and over $50,000 from a 
6,000-acre corn farm in Iowa. A few 
months later there appeared in the same 
magazine another article, the purport of 
which was that great wealth, whether it be 
obtained from farming, the mining of coal, 
the manufacture of steel or the selling of 
merchandise, is the exception, while the 
man, in whatever calling, who rears and 
educates a family and at the same time lays 
by a small competence is the normal Amer- 
ican product. The moral is that a $500- 
a-year-income farm is a more important 

44 



OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE 

factor to the national welfare than a 
$5o,ooo-a-year-income farm. 

In the latter article the writer tells of two 
brothers who had been reared on a Michi- 
gan farm. Reuben was tired of the coun- 
try. He went to the city and apprenticed 
himself to a harnessmaker. Against the 
advice of young friends, Lucien bought 
sixty acres of land and ran in debt for it. 

In a year Reuben was earning a dollar a 
day. He wore a white shirt and pointed 
shoes, not because they were more com- 
fortable, but because other people did. He 
had no debts. Lucien had fair crops, but 
they yielded no more than enough to pay 
interest on the mortgage. He wore a ragged 
shirt, patched breeches and cowhide boots. 
People said that Reuben was making a gen- 
tleman of himself and learning a trade in 
the bargain. 

In two years, Reuben had completed his 
apprenticeship. He was now earning $io 
a week. He lived in a house that had a 
fancy veranda and green blinds. His cloth- 
ing improved. Lucien was still ragged, but 

45 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

he paid his interest and $300 each year upon 
the principal. People said that Reuben, 
the harnessmaker, was bound to come to the 
front. 

In ten years more, Reuben was still fore- 
man of the shop at $50 a month. He lived 
in the same house, and smoked Havana 
cigars. Lucien built a new house and a 
barn. He smoked a pipe. The neighbors 
saw that every year he made some improve- 
ment on the farm. He wore a white shirt 
when he went to town, and he had a pair 
of button shoes. People said that Lucien 
was becoming a prominent man. His word 
was good at the bank. 

Reuben began to complain that harness- 
making was too confining. His health was 
breaking down. The proprietor was selfish. 
He would not die and leave the business to 
him. Harnessmaking was not what it used 
to be. Lucien bought more land. He went 
fishing when he wanted to. Reuben came 
out now and then to spend Sunday. The 
birds seemed to sing more sweetly than ever 

46 



OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE 

before and the grass was greener. Lucien 
endorsed Reuben's note. 

Lucien has pigs, and cows, and sheep, and 
chickens, and turkeys, and horses. He raises 
potatoes and beans, and corn, and wheat, 
and garden stuff, and fruit. He buys his 
groceries and clothing and tobacco. Reuben 
buys everything. At the close of the year 
Lucien puts from $ioo to $300 in the bank 
or takes a trip to Washington. Reuben does 
well if he come out even. Lucien does not 
fret; Reuben grumbles. 

The picture is true to life. It has been 
enacted and re-enacted in every one of the 
older communities of the United States. 

It has always seemed to the writer, how- 
ever, that the author of this suggestive story 
left out two important personages. They 
were Sarah, the wife of Reuben, and Mary, 
the wife of Lucien. Sarah liked to make 
tatting and to go to pink teas. Mary pre- 
ferred to raise flowers and fluffy little 
chickens. Nothing is to be said for or 
against the taste of either. Each has a right 
to her preference, but their point of view 

47 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

cannot be left out of the problem when a 
young man is considering his future occupa- 
tion. 

It has been said, and probably with con- 
siderable truth, that most congressmen 
would not hang around Washington if it 
were not for their wives. 

No one must mistake this story as an 
attempt to compare harness making with 
farming, much less to compare living in the 
city with life in the open country. 

What it does is to compare the struggle 
and the development of the man who goes 
into business for himself with the man who 
accepts employment at wages. 

Because of less responsibility and less 
sacrifices at the beginning, the tendency is 
for young men to work for wages rather 
than to engage in business for themselves. 
This is becoming more and more true as in- 
dustrial methods make it more and more 
difficult for the young man to command the 
requisite capital. 

The man who works for wages usually 
has the larger income and appears the most 

48 



OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE 

prosperous during the earlier years as com- 
pared with his brother who enters business. 
The business man, however, who, while 
young, economizes and invests his savings 
in his business gradually outstrips his wage- 
earning brother. During later life he is 
able to enjoy the fruits of his earlier 
economy and investments, while failing 
powers and keen competition of younger 
and better trained men restrict the oppor- 
tunities of the wage earner, who has gen- 
erally spent his wages in better living, or at 
least in more outward show. 

This is well shown by the fact that it is 
customary to make provision by means of 
pensions for wage earners of all sorts, while 
no such arrangement is made for men who 
engage in business, be that farming, trade or 
transportation. 

For many reasons, however, young men 
will continue to seek employment at wages, 
even if only for a few years, or until some 
capital has been acquired which may be 
invested in business. 

The question arises, therefore, what op- 
49 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

portunities there may be for the young man 
who desires to engage, eventually, in the 
business of farming to work for wages along 
lines that will not be too far removed from 
the business in which he is subsequently to 
engage. It will be assumed that the young- 
man has prepared himself in that same 
painstaking way that he would if he were 
preparing to become an engineer, a lawyer 
or a physician. 

There is a constant demand for men with 
proper training as managers of farms. As 
stated elsewhere, the wages are seldom less 
than $40 nor more than $75 a month to be- 
ginners, although for men of experience 
$5,000 a year has been paid in exceptional 
cases for the management of large enter- 
prises. These positions often constitute ideal 
opportunities for capable young men. They 
require, however, not only an intimate 
knowledge of farming, but the ability, also, 
to manage men. 

The ability to manage men requires the 
combination of decision and tact, not pos- 
sessed by all, and not easily acquired by 
SO 



OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE 

education or practice. Not only must the 
farm manager be able to manage workmen, 
but oftentimes he must manage his em- 
ployer, who may have little knowledge of 
farming but still insists upon having his 
own ideas executed, as he, of course, has a 
perfect right to do. 

Another danger is the fact that where the 
farm is owned by a man engaged in other 
business, many circumstances may arise to 
cause the owner to change his plans or sell 
his property. There is often, therefore, a 
lack of permanency in these positions. 

The United States Department of Agri- 
culture employs upward of 5,000 people. 
There is a constant demand for young men 
to recruit this service, including experts in 
soils, plant production, animal husbandry, 
dairying, chemistry and forestry. Beginners 
receive from $800 to $1,000 a year. When 
they are sent out of Washington into field 
service, as many of them are, they receive 
their expenses, including subsistence in 
addition. Young men may rise rather 
rapidly by promotion to $1,600 a year, then 

51 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

more slowly to $2,000, while an occasional 
man is promoted to the more responsible 
position paying $3,000 to $4,000 a year. 

The positions are all filled through the 
competitive civil service examinations. Ex- 
aminations are held at more or less irregular 
intervals, usually several times a year, in 
various sections of the country. A letter 
addressed to the United States Civil Service 
Commission will secure the necessary in- 
formation concerning openings and the 
general requirements for the examinations. 

Employment in the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture often affords oppor- 
tunity for varied experience and wide 
observation of farming methods throughout 
the country. Such employment is generally 
to be considered desirable if not continued 
for too long a period. As a matter of fact, 
men are constantly leaving the service to 
engage in practical or other work, a fact 
which makes the demand for young men 
greater than would otherwise be the case. 

The various agricultural colleges and 
experiment stations are constantly seeking 
52 



OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE 

men. It would seem that the demand would 
eventually be satisfied. As a matter of fact, 
however, it grows greater year by year, 
both because these institutions continue to 
grow and because young men are attracted 
more and more to practical work. It is 
stated that in one institution there were 46 
graduates in the course in animal husbandry 
and that 44 went into practical work and 
only two sought employment in college or 
station. The salaries are about the same as 
in government positions. 

Agricultural newspaper work ofifers an 
attractive field for young men who are 
properly trained and have a taste for this 
kind of work. 

There is also beginning to be quite a de- 
mand for teachers of agriculture in the high 
schools. As a rule a man is wanted who 
can teach, in addition, the sciences usually 
taught in secondary school. The customary 
salary is from $70 to $100 a month on an 
eight to ten months' basis. An experience 
of one or two years as a teacher in a high 
school, or even the lower grades of the pub- 

S3 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

lie school, should be invaluable to the young 
man who expects subsequently to engage in 
farming. This is particularly true if he has 
not had the opportunity of a college 
training. 

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state that 
the salaries mentioned in this chapter are 
obtained only by young men who possess 
certain qualifications. To secure them, they 
must be men of ability, integrity, virtue and 
industry. No man who is not willing to 
make the preparation necessary to master 
his subject can expect to succeed. He must, 
also, be a man of absolute honesty, and he 
must lead a clean life. It was Bismarck who 
said, of German university students, "One- 
third die out; one-third rot out; the other 
third rule Germany." Every man who will 
may choose whether he will belong to 
Bismarck's second or third class. 

The question for the young man of 20 is 
not merely as to the morrow, but what is 
likely to be the trend of events during the 
next 35 to 50 years. 

"In 1800 the United States nowhere 

54 



OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE 

crossed the Mississippi and nowhere 
touched the Gulf of Mexico." In 1850 the 
country west of the Mississippi River was 
agriculturally largely an undiscovered 
region. Since 1870 we have much more 
than doubled our population and our agri- 
culture. Since that time we have subdued 
more of the open country to the uses of man 
than we had been able to do in 250 years of 
our previous history. 

During the past 300 years we have prided 
ourselves upon being an agricultural peo- 
ple. We have been an agricultural people, 
but our problems have not been chiefly 
those of the agriculturist, but those of the 
engineer. 

Our problem, in the past, has not been to 
make two blades of grass to grow where but 
one grew before. Our problem has been to 
harvest and transport two bushels of wheat 
or two bales of cotton with the labor pre- 
viously required to harvest one. Our crops 
have been so abundant that the agricultural 
problems connected with the growing of 
them has been secondary to the engineering 

55 



c 



^ THE YOUNG FARMER 

problems of their harvesting and transpor- 
tation. The self-binder and the steam loco- 
motive have been our achievements. 

If the writer mistakes not, the future 
problem will not be so much the harvesting 
and transporting, as the growth of the crops. 
In the future, young men will be needed 
who have studied the science of living things 
in order that they may make, literally, two 
blades of grass to grow where but one grew. 
To men who will be able to do so, will come 
success and honor. 



S6 



CHAPTER V 
WHERE TO LOCATE 

UNLESS the young farmer expects to 
return to the ancestral home, the first 
question he must settle is where he is going 
to locate. Indeed, one of the most common 
questions asked is, What do you think of 
this state or that state or this region or that 
as a place to farm? There are few 
questions harder to answer. This is due, 
among other reasons, to the fact that every 
place has its advantages and disadvantages. 
The sum of the advantages may be greater 
in one place than in another, but if these 
advantages are known they must generally 
be paid for. 

New adaptations, however, may change 
materially the value of the land in a given 
locality as, for example, the discovery that 
a region is especially adapted to raising 
alfalfa, onions, cabbages, apples or peaches. 
Changing conditions, as the growth of popu- 
lation or better transportation facilities, may 

57 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

materially affect the attractiveness of a re- 
gion from the standpoint of the farmer. 

The competition of other regions which 
grow similar crops is a potent factor in 
determining the desirability of a region. 
For example, the farmers east of the Alle- 
gheny mountains during the nineteenth 
century competed with the farmers of the 
central West who had free, fertile, easily 
tilled land on which to grow maize, wheat 
and oats. Cattle and sheep were pastured 
on the open range. The twentieth century 
has found the land of this region settled and 
capitalized in some instances beyond that 
of the eastern states; thus one factor at least 
of competition has been eliminated. 

While farm values readjust themselves in 
time, it often happens, especially in the 
older settled regions, that farm values are 
slow in reflecting these changes in economic 
conditions. Changed conditions often call 
for a change in farm methods which the 
habits and traditions of even one generation 
prevent. To the man who is able to apply 
the proper methods the region may be a 

58 



WHERE TO LOCATE 

desirable one, although under existing con- 
ditions the results may be unsatisfactory. 
The young man, however, is cautioned at 
this point not to be overconfident of his own 
ability. Under such circumstances it is well 
to study the problem with great care, be- 
cause the methods which seem unwise to the 
casual observer may, after all, be found to 
be based upon sound economic principles. 

A man of 25 who is looking for a location 
should not only study the present conditions 
of the locality, but try to predict what is 
likely to be the future of the region during 
the next third of a century, since this is the 
period in which he may reasonably expect 
to be personally interested, although later in 
life he will find himself quite as much in- 
terested in the more distant future on 
account of his children. 

Nothing is more self-evident than that 
one should choose a region, especially as 
regards soil and climate, which is adapted 
to the crop or crops to be raised, yet there are 
probably more failures due to a lack of crop 
adaptation than to any other cause that is not 
59 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

personal to the man himself. Not only do 
apples, for their best success, require cer- 
tain soil types, but different varieties of 
apples require for their best development, 
distinctly different types of soil as, for ex- 
ample, Rhode Island Greening, Baldwin, 
York Imperial and Grime's Golden. Each 
reaches its best development on different 
types of soil and some require different 
climatic conditions. In like manner apples 
and peaches require distinctly different 
types of soil for the best success of each and 
for this reason peaches are not desirable as 
fillers in apple orchards. 

If at the proper season of the year one 
goes from Pittsburg to Chicago via Colum- 
bus and Indianapolis, he will see great fields 
of winter wheat and a considerable number 
of permanent pastures. From Chicago to 
Omaha he will see only occasionally a field 
of wheat and scarcely any permanent pas- 
ture. Oats have taken the place of wheat. 
In parts of Eastern Kansas and Oklahoma 
the predominant crop is winter wheat. 
Throughout the whole region from Pitts- 
60 



WHERE TO LOCATE 

burg to Topeka, Kansas, the characteristic 
crop is maize or Indian corn. Between St. 
Paul and Fargo, the main crops are spring 
wheat and oats. One may travel from Win- 
nipeg, Manitoba, to Calgary, Alberta, a 
distance of over one thousand miles without 
seeing a field of maize. In some portions 
the main crop is wheat, in others it is oats. 

These are illustrations of the crop adapta- 
tion over large areas, which has come about 
unconsciously, as has most crop adaptation. 
In other parts of the United States are to be 
found even more striking examples of crop 
adaptation, although the areas are much 
smaller, as in the case of tobacco, potatoes, 
celery, onions, apples, peaches and other 
fruits. Regions containing residual soils 
are more variable in crop adaptation than 
drift soils and require more careful watch- 
fulness on the part of those who may wish 
to buy land. 

As previously stated, advantages, if 

known, must usually be paid for. It comes 

about, therefore, that if a region or a farm 

is adapted to the raising of a certain crop 

6i 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

which is more profitable than the average, 
such as maize, tobacco, alfalfa, celery, ap- 
ples or peaches, this land will, other things 
being equal, command a higher price than 
land which does not possess this character- 
istic. 

There is an underlying economic prin- 
ciple which the man who goes out to choose 
a farm should clearly understand. The 
principle has been stated by Fairchild as 
follows: "The normal value of products 
capable of indefinite multiplication tends 
always toward the value of least costly.,. On 
the other hand, if any production cannot be 
largely extended, so that the supply barely 
meets the requirements of the purchasers, 
the tendency of normal values is toward the 
cost of the most costly part of the product 
required to meet wants." 

This principle explains why land espe- 
cially adapted to raising maize is higher 
priced than land primarily adapted to rais- 
ing wheat. Maize which enters into com- 
merce is raised almost exclusively in ten 
states of the United States. Wheat is har- 
62 



WHERE TO LOCATE 

vested practically every month of every year 
in different parts of the world. The young 
farmer should consider, therefore, whether 
he is undertaking to raise crops in which 
there is unlimited competition, or whether 
soil or other conditions cause the output to 
be relatively limited. 



63 



T 



CHAPTER VI 

SIZE OF FARM 

HE size of the farm is another of those 
questions on which there is endless de- 
bate and to which no general answer can be 
given. There are, however, certain rather 
definite principles which may help in 
settling an individual problem. 

The size of the farm is related to the in- 
come per acre. If one's ideal or purpose is 
a gross income of $i,ooo or $3,000 or $5,000 
a year, he must consider how large a farm 
will be necessary to bring this return. 

Assume, for the sake of discussion, it is 
desired to obtain a gross income of $4,000. 
In the eastern United States 200 acres of 
tillable land devoted to general farming may 
bring this amount. If the land is especially 
adapted to potatoes, and this crop takes a 
prominent place in the rotation, 100 acres 
might be sufficient to return the income 
named. Likewise a 100-acre retail milk 
dairv farm may produce a similar result. 

64 



SIZE OF FARM 

Forty acres devoted to truck farming or 
market gardening may be sufficient. 

There is another way that the size of the 
farm needed may be estimated. There is a 
general relation between the gross income 
and the amount invested. In 1900 the gross 
income of the farms of the United States 
was 18 per cent of the total investment, 
which includes land, buildings, tools, and 
live stock. The average gross income varied 
for the different types of farming common 
to the northern United States from 16 to 19 
per cent. This represents, of course, a great 
deal of very poor farming. The income of 
prosperous farmers must be somewhat better 
than this. If we assume that by careful 
methods the gross income is 25% of the total 
investment, then an investment of $16,000 
will be required to bring a gross income of 
$4,000. While it is true that the gross in- 
come has no necessary relation to net in- 
come or profit, yet it is well to remember 
that a gross income is a necessary antecedent 
of a net income. The net profit from the 
production of a bushel of wheat, a dozen of 

65 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

eggs, or a pound of butter is of compara- 
tively small consequence unless a sufficient 
quantity is produced. 

A recent investigation by the Cornell 
station appears to show that with the type 
of farming now existing in Tompkins and 
Livingston counties. New York, where the 
investigation chanced to be made, the larger 
farms yielded the most profitable returns 
and that while present conditions exist, the 
size of farms is likely to increase rather than 
decrease. The fundamental reason seems to 
be the substitution of horse-drawn machin- 
ery for hand labor. 

The following table shows the labor in- 
come on 586 farms operated by the owners, 
classified according to size: 





Number 


Average 






of 


size 


Labor 


Acres 


farms 


(acres) 


income 


30 or less 


30 


21 


$168 


31 to 60 


108 


49 


254 


61 to lOO 


21+ 


83 


373 


loi to 150 


143 


124 


436 


151 to 200 


57 


177 


63s 


over 200 


34 


261 


946 



Average 103 $415 

While the larger the farm, the more pros- 
66 



SIZE OF FARM 

pcrous was the operating owner or tenant, 
the size of the farm did not seem to affect 
the profit of the landlord. 

The amount of land one individual may 
own is unlimited; the size of the farm unit 
is limited. After a farm unit has reached 
a certain size, depending upon the type of 
farming, the general arrangement of the 
farm and the skill in management, any fur- 
ther increase will increase the cost of opera- 
tion, and as the increase continues eventually 
cause a decrease in profits. Assuming this 
to be true, it follows as a mathematical neces- 
sity that as the farm increases in size the 
total profits will increase as the farm in- 
creases up to a given point and then the 
profits will decrease. The following table 
illustrates this law: 



Size of 


j4 


B- 

Net profit 


Net 




farm 


Net profit 


> 

Net profit 


profit 


acres 


per acre 


per farm 


per acre 


per 


farm 


1 60 


$5.00 


$800' 


$5.00 




$800 


200 


4.50 


900 


4-7S 




950 


240 


4.00 


960 


4.50 




1,080 


280 


3.50 


980 


4.25 




1,190 


320 


3.00 


960 


4.00 




1,280 


360 


2.50 


900 


3-75 




1,350 


400 


2.00 


800 


3-50 




1,400 


440 


1.50 


660 


3.25 




1,430 


480 


1.00 


480 


3.00 




1,440 


520 


.50 


260 


2.75 




1,430 


560 


— 


— 


2.50 




1,400 



67 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

In both case A and case B it is assumed 
that the greatest net profit per acre is to be 
obtained with i6o acres, and that the net 
profit per acre when the farm is of that size 
is $5. In case A it is assumed that the net 
profit would decrease $1 for each 80 acres 
added, while in case B the decrease is 
assumed to be only one-half as rapid. In 
the first instance the net profit per farm in- 
creases until 280 acres are reached, when 
the net profit per farm decreases, until at 560 
acres no profit would be obtained. In case 
B the net profit per farm increases until 480 
acres are reached. Everyone is cautioned 
not to accept these figures as representing 
what would actually happen. All that can 
be said is that as the farm unit increases in 
size there will come a point at which the net 
profit per acre will decrease because of the 
physical difficulty of managing a large area, 
and, therefore, there is a limit to the size of 
a single farm. Fifteen thousand acres may 
lay in one tract and be owned by one indi- 
vidual, firm or corporation, but its economic 
management requires for purely physical 
68 



SIZE OF FARM 

reasons, not to mention others, that it be 
managed in several units more or less dis- 
tinct from one another. Just what the size 
of this unit will be no one knows and it will 
vary with the type of farming, the type of 
farmer and many other circumstances. For 
example, a very common unit for a tenant 
cotton farm is between 20 and 50 acres, both 
the product and the farmer being a limiting 
factor. 

Perhaps the most important lesson to be 
learned from a study of this table is that it 
is wise for some men to operate a farm of 
320 acres, others of 160 acres and still others 
of 80 acres, because each size of farm pre- 
sents a task suited to different abilities. It 
would be as futile for one fitted to operate 
only an 80-acre farm to attempt to manage 
320 acres as it would be unwise for the man 
capable of conducting 320 acres to confine 
his attention to 80 acres. Unfortunately 
while this principle is not difficult to per- 
ceive and is easily stated, it is practically 
impossible to make any application of it to 
an individual case. Only time and the in- 

69 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

exorable laws of competition will adjust 
men to their several tasks. 

It will be of interest to note what influ- 
ence in actual practice the type of farming 
has upon the size of the farm. The census 
reports the average size of all farms in the 
United States as 147 acres, with the differ- 
ent types as follows: Vegetables, 65 acres; 
fruits, 75 acres; dairy products, 120 acres; 
hay and grain, 159 acres; and live stock, 
227 acres. Speaking in a very general way, 
only about one-half the land on these farms 
is in cultivated crops, while only 40% of the 
income may be from the products which 
cause the farm to be thus classified. The 
young farmer will do well to have these 
figures in mind when he starts out in life, 
for while they are not to be followed liter- 
ally, they give him a measuring stick with 
which to compare his operations. 



70 



CHAPTER VII 
SELECTION OF FARM 

HAVING some of these preliminary 
questions settled, or at least well in 
mind, the young farmer is ready to inspect 
individual farms with a view to purchasing 
or renting. He should examine each farm 
from four general aspects, namely: (i) The 
character and topography of the soil, (2) 
the climatic conditions, including healthful- 
ness and water supply, (3) the location, and 
(4) the improvements. 

It may be well at the outset to emphasize 
the advantage which even a small difference 
in fertility may bring. Suppose one farm - 
is capable of raising fifteen bushels of wheat S^ 
per acre and another twenty bushels. If 
wheat is 80 cents a bushel, then the gross in- 
come is $12 and $16 respectively. If it is 
assumed that it costs in either case for seed, 
labor and interest on investment $8 an acre 
to raise and harvest the crop, then it will be 
seen that an increase of five bushels an acre 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

doubles the profit. The comparison is per- 
haps not quite fair, since it costs slightly 
more to harvest the larger crop, but it serves 
to illustrate the point. 

Neither the crop adaptation nor the crop- 
producing power of the soil can be deter- 
mined by taking a sample and submitting it 
to a chemist for analysis. These factors can 
best be determined by the character of the 
vegetation, both domestic and wild, and by 
a knowledge obtained through observation 
or reading as to what this particular soil 
type usually does. Every type of soil has 
certain characteristics which under like con- 
ditions it may be expected to reproduce, 
much in the same manner as each species of 
animal reproduces its characteristics. 

The first essential is to be able to recog- 
nize the different soil types. This can only 
be done by close observation and study. The 
second essential is to determine what the 
crop-producing characteristics of these 
types of soil are. This knowledge may be 
obtained by personal observation; but as 
most persons' opportunities are limited in 
72 



SELECTION OF FARM 

this direction, it should be supplemented 
wherever possible by a study of the soil sur- 
veys of the United States Department of 
Agriculture wherever these are available. 
When this is not possible samples of soil 
may be submitted to the Bureau of Soils of 
the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture or to the soil division of the state ex- 
periment station, together with a suitable 
description and such knowledge of the his- 
tory of the land as is obtainable. In this 
way you may obtain information as to the 
natural adaptation of the particular type 
of soil. 

There will still remain the question of 
the present condition of the land. For ex- 
ample, the Pennsylvania station obtained in 
a certain season 42 loads of hay from nine 
acres of land. The same season, from exactly 
the same soil type, the station obtained eight 
loads of hay from 20 acres. The condition 
of the soil was different, which the previous 
history of the two tracts of land fully 
explains. 

It is of the utmost importance, therefore, 

73 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

to distinguish between the natural fertility 
of the soil and the condition of the soil. A 
further example will help to illustrate this 
point. At the Rothamsted Station a cer- 
tain type of soil has for over 60 years pro- 
duced annually about 12 bushels of wheat 
an acre without fertilizer, while with a 
complete fertilizer the same type has pro- 
duced 30 or more bushels. The 12 bushels 
may be said to represent the natural fer- 
tility of the soil, while the additional 18 
bushels may be said to represent the condi- 
tion of the soil due to fertilizers or to other 
conditions. On the other hand, the natural 
condition of some other soil type might be 
only eight bushels, or still another type 
might be 16 bushels. 

This principle is of considerable practi- 
cal importance, especially in the eastern 
third of the United States. Generally speak- 
ing, clay and silt soils have a greater natural 
fertility than sandy soils; limestone soils 
than those that are deficient in lime. Thus 
soils that naturally grow chestnut trees, indi- 
cating a low lime content, have a tendency 

74 



SELECTION OF FARM 

to deteriorate under exhaustive cropping 
much more rapidly than limestone soils. 
More fertilizers and other methods of soil 
improvement are necessary in the case of 
chestnut soils than in the case of lime- 
stone valley soils. One of the first 
questions to ask, therefore, concerning an 
unknown farm in Pennsylvania is whether 
or not chestnut trees grow naturally. It 
does not follow, however, that chestnut soils 
are undesirable. Much will depend upon 
the crop or crops it is desired to raise. For 
example, in some regions they are well 
adapted to potatoes and peaches. In these 
cases the cost of the fertilizers necessary to 
keep the soil in proper condition is small 
compared with the total return from the 
crop. 

The pioneer's best guide as to the value of 
new land was and is the vegetation growing 
upon it, and, especially in a wooded country, 
the native trees. Basswood, crab apple, wild 
plum, black walnut, ash, hickory and hard 
maple generally indicate a fertile soil. 
White oak indicates only a moderate soil; 

75 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

bur oak, a somewhat warmer and better 
drained soil. Beech indicates a rather poor 
soil ; a heavy clay, lacking in organic matter. 
Certain species of elms, maples and oaks, as 
red maple and the Spanish swamp oak, in- 
dicate wet soils. 

The occurrence and vigor of certain her- 
baceous plants are especially indicative of 
fertility of the soil, as, for example, rag- 
weed, bindweed, certain plants of the sun- 
flower family, such as goldenrod, asters and 
wild sunflowers. Soils adapted to red 
clover and alfalfa are usually well drained 
and contain plenty of lime. Alsike clover 
will grow on a soil too wet or containing too 
little lime for either of the former. Soils 
that produce sorrel and redtop when red 
clover and timothy are sown need drainage 
or liming or both. Sedges usually indicate 
a wet soil, although certain species grow on 
dry, sandy soils. The point of this para- 
graph, however, is not to give comprehen- 
sive advice but to cause the young farmer to 
observe the conditions and make his own 
applications, which will vary in different 

76 



SELECTION OF FARM 

regions and under different circumstances. 

Perhaps the one feature that the young 
farmer is most likely to overlook in the 
selection of a farm is the relative proportion 
of tillable land. One farm of 200 acres, 
may, on account of stony land, wet land, 
comparatively unproductive woodland, or 
because of the arrangement of fences and 
roadways, contain only eighty acres of tilla- 
ble land, while another may contain 160 
acres. This is one reason why a 160-acre 
farm in the central West may be more val- 
uable than a farm of the same size in the 
northeastern United States. 

Columella says with regard to the selec- 
tion of land that there are two things chiefly 
to be considered, the wholesomeness of the 
air and the fruitfulness of the place, "of 
which if either the one or the other should 
be wanting, and notwithstanding anyone 
should have a mind to dwell there, he must 
have lost his senses and ought to be con- 
veyed to his kinfolk to take care of him." 

In selecting a farm do not fail to inquire 
whether there has been any recent illness, 

11 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

and if so the nature of it, either among the 
persons living there or the domestic animals 
kept. 

Aside from healthfulness, climate is a 
fundamental and controlling factor, both in 
productiveness and economic farm manage- 
ment. Temperature and rainfall affect the 
number of days that work can be performed 
upon the land and hence affect materially 
the economy of labor. It is this fact that 
prevents the systematic organization of 
labor so common in manufacturing and 
transportation. The climate also affects the 
cost of producing live stock by modifying 
the food and shelter required. 

The climate of a region is Dest studied 
from the reports of the United States 
Weather Bureau rather than from the state- 
ments published by interested parties. So 
far as the production of crops is concerned 
the distribution of rainfall is more impor- 
tant than the annual amount, as may be 
shown by comparing the rainfall in such 
places as Columbus. Ohio, and Lmcoln, 
Nebraska. 

78 



SELECTION OF FARM 

The average temperature during the 
growing season is, of course, of more impor- 
tance from the standpoint of crop produc- 
tion than the average annual temperature. 
Maximum and minimum temperatures or 
the range of temperature must be consid- 
ered as well as the average temperature. 

One of the most practical questions to 
determine is the average date of the last 
killing frost in the spring and the date of the 
first killing frost in the autumn; in other 
words, the length of the growing season. 
Both altitude and topography enter into this 
problem. In a given locality killing frosts 
will occur on a still night in the valley be- 
fore they do on the elevations, because the 
air as it cools becomes heavier and flows 
down into the lowest places just as water 
would do. On the other hand, as the alti- 
tude increases the growing season shortens. 

Whenever I am asked a question involv- 
ing the production of farm crops by a 
Pennsylvania farmer before answering, I 
ask three questions: (i) Where are you 
located? (2) Do chestnut trees grow natu- 
79 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

rally upon your land? (3) What is your 
altitude? 

One factor that is often overlooked by the 
young farmer needs only to be mentioned 
to be thoroughly appreciated. It is the 
amount and character of the water supply. 
Not only is this of the utmost importance 
from the standpoint of the household, but it 
is fundamental to the best farm manage- 
ment. Thus, if the water supply is limited 
the amount of live stock kept will be cur- 
tailed, and thus the proper utilization of 
farm products prevented and maintenance 
of the fertility of the soil made more diffi- 
cult. 

The young farmer should recognize that 
some kinds of farming are more dependent 
upon the climatic conditions than others and 
should, therefore, select the location best 
suited to the type of farming desired or else 
modify his type of farming to suit the 
climatic conditions. If one studies criti- 
cally the types of farming in various parts 
of the United States, it will be seen that they 
have already been adjusted in large degree, 
80 



SELECTION OF FARM 

either consciously or unconsciously, to the 
climatic conditions. The young farmer 
should be careful that he does not undertake 
to butt his head against a stone wall. 

Having found a farm that suits our ideal 
as to the natural conditions, such as the crop 
adaptation, fertility, topography and 
climate, what may be called the artificial 
conditions must be studied. 

The location may be studied, both as to 
local and distant markets and the means of 
reaching each, which includes roadways 
and shipping facilities. Here again much 
will depend upon the products which are to 
be sold. The man who raises tobacco, hogs 
or beef cattle does not suffer any great 
economic disadvantage by living ten miles 
from a shipping station, but a man does who 
produces milk, peaches, potatoes or hay. 

In these days there is not much danger 
that the character of the roadway will be 
overlooked by the intending purchaser of 
the farm, although sufficient importance 
may not be given to the advantage of really 
good roads, both as to grade and surface. 
8i 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Perhaps the one most important question to 
consider in connection with tne transporta- 
tion facilities is whether products may be 
shipped without change from the shipping 
station to the market it is desired to reach. 
Although at first glance we may not like 
the thought, it must be conceded that neigh- 
bors are not only important morally and 
socially, but they also may have economic 
advantages and disadvantages. While it 
may sometimes happen that it will be wise 
to raise in a given neighborhood some 
product that no one else has undertaken to 
supply, yet as a rule, if a given neighborhood 
is raising Jersey, or Guernsey or Holstein 
cattle or Chester White, Berkshire or 
Poland China hogs, or Southdown or 
Shropshire or Cotswold sheep, it will be 
wise to raise the breed commonly raised in- 
stead of the least commonly raised breed, as 
it is sometimes supposed. The more potato 
growers or cabbage growers or celery rais- 
ers or orchardists in a locality the better for 
all concerned, for a number of reasons, 
among which may be mentioned (i) the 
82 



SELECTION OF FARM 

more and the better the products raised the 
more buyers will seek the region and hence 
the higher will be the price obtained for the 
product; (2) the more of a given product 
there is to ship the better the shipping facil- 
ities for that product are likely to be; (3) 
all the necessary supplies for the type of 
farming can be more readily and cheaply 
obtained; (4) there will be a better knowl- 
edge of the business when more men have 
had experience in raising the particular 
crop. 

These principles apply in all classes of 
business; thus we find woolen factories in 
Philadelphia, silk factories at Paterson, 
N. J., cotton factories at Lowell, Mass., plow 
factories at Moline, 111., and steel mills at 
Pittsburg. Many of these centers possessed 
originally some natural advantages which 
caused the location of the first factory, but 
others have been drawn there on account of 
the principles enunciated. The farmers of 
a given region have a community of interest 
as well as railroads. The young farmer 
should recognize this fact and if necessary 

83 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

should exert himself to develop such inter- 
est in his community, both for his own ben- 
efit and that of his neighbors. 

There are two classes of farms for which 
the purchaser is in danger of paying too 
much, one on which there are extensive im- 
provements and one on which there are 
none at all. A farm with just barely enough 
improvements for the conduct of the type 
of farming it is proposed to develop can 
usually be purchased most advantageously. 
The purchaser should understand clearly 
that the previous cost of the improvements 
has no necessary relation to their present 
value, any more than the value of a second- 
hand suit of clothes is dependent upon its 
original cost. All depends on how badly 
they are worn and how well they are 
adapted to present conditions. The value 
of farm improvements is not unlike those in 
other business enterprises in this respect. 
Their value depends upon present and pros- 
pective earning capacity and not on former 
cost. 

No rule can be laid down as to the rela- 

84 



SELECTION OF FARM 

tion which should exist between the value 
of land itself and the value of the improve- 
ments. In practice it varies greatly. In the 
United States the farm improvements con- 
stitute on an average 21% of the total value 
of land, being as high as 45% in Massachu- 
setts and as low as 15% in Texas. The 
young farmer may well consider, therefore, 
whether he can earn interest on his invest- 
ment when the improvements cost more than 
25% of the total value of the real estate. Cer- 
tainly when it becomes one-half it is exces- 
sive. The man who runs a farm as an avoca- 
tion usually errs in putting too much money 
into permanent improvements for the farm 
to be a paying investment. 

If it is admitted that the farm unit is lim- 
ited because of the physical difficulties of 
managing large areas, then it must at once 
be seen how important the arrangement of 
the farmsteading must be to the successful 
conduct of the farm. In the older farming 
communities where the present farm hold- 
ings are the result of several purchases or 
sales the shape of the farm, the arrangement 

8.5 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

of the fields and the place of the farm build- 
ings become an extremely important mat- 
ter. Sometimes satisfactory rearrangements 
are easily made, at other times they are quite 
impossible. No attempt will be made to 
discuss this subject in detail here, but the 
young farmer should bring to this question 
all the experience and study possible. 

When the young farmer goes to inspect 
a farm it is to be assumed that he will be 
conducted over the farm by the owner or his 
authorized agent. It is proper to give 
respectful attention to everything that is 
told him, provided he follows carefully the 
California adage to "believe nothing you 
hear and only one-half what you see." 

If a farm consists of 200 or 300 acres of 
land, it is possible for the agent to convey 
the purchaser over the farm in such a way 
as to prevent the least desirable portions be- 
ing seen. If the farm has attracted the 
seeker of land, he should not purchase until 
he has made another visit, preferably some 
days or weeks after the first one. He may 
then very properly visit the farm alone, pass- 
86 



SELECTION OF FARM 

ing over quite a dififerent course from that 
pursued hitherto. Sketches and notes will 
be found very helpful, and if the use of the 
soil auger is understood it may be well em- 
ployed to study the character of both soil 
and subsoil. During the interval between 
visits some casual inquiries may be made 
among those who know the history of the 
farm in question, because the past history 
of the farm obtained from unprejudiced 
witnesses is of prime importance in arriving 
at a conclusion concerning its value. 

A farm is much more attractive when a 
crop is growing upon it than when it is 
without active vegetation. Poor land looks 
relatively better than good land during or 
just after a rain. Many matters concerning 
the selection of a farm can only be learned 
by some years of practical experience. The 
young farmer will do well, therefore, to 
secure the help of some more experienced 
person. If he has among his acquaintances 
a successful farmer of mature years he will 
be fortunate if he can secure his advice. 



87 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE FARM SCHEME 

FARMING is no pink tea. It is a serious 
business. After the young farmer has 
selected the farm he must develop his farm 
scheme. He must contemplate well and 
seriously the philosophy which underlies 
his plans. Unless he sees clearly what he is 
striving to attain and unless he understands 
the effect of his methods, he must fail in 
great measure to obtain his goal. 

Satisfactory results in farming cannot be 
obtained as a general practice if the man is 
only interested in the results of a single year. 
For this reason the itinerant tenant system 
will not be satisfactory unless the landlord 
has worked out a satisfactory scheme which 
he requires his tenant to follow. 

It is not enough that a man shall grow a 
single large crop, but it is necessary that he 
should continue to grow a satisfactory crop 
at least at regular intervals. For example, 
a piece of land may be adapted to cabbage, 
88 



THE FARM SCHEME 

celery, potatoes or hay. Assume for the 
moment it is adapted to cabbage and that 
by one or more seasons of preparation an 
enormous crop of cabbages may be 'Cured. 
This fact is of little value unless suffi- 
cient quantity is raised and the process 
can be repeated annually. Cabbages cannot 
be grown again on this particular piece of 
land for from four to six years on account of 
club root. If the farmer does not have other 
areas which he can bring into cabbages 
year after year, for from three to five 
years, then he becomes a failure as a cab- 
bage raiser. Even a perennial, like alfalfa 
or asparagus, should form a part of the gen- 
eral scheme of crop production if the most 
satisfactory results are to be obtained. 

There are two general questions at the 
basis of all farm schemes: (i) How to ob- 
tain a fairly uniform succession of cash 
products year after year, and (2) how to 
keep up or improve the fertility of the soil 
economically while doing so. In other 
words, how to keep the investment from 

89 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

decreasing while it is earning a satisfactory 
and fairly uniform income. 

It is necessary, therefore, to consider what 
products are to be sold and what are simply 
subsidiary to the cash products. The cash 
products may, of course, be soil products or 
animal products, but more likely they will 
be both. When animals form a large part 
of the enterprise the cropping system must 
be carefully adjusted to meet the needs of 
these animals. Many apparently trivial de- 
tails must be considered, as for example, 
whether the cropping system furnishes too 
little or too much bedding for the live stock. 

In considering profits the enterprise as a 
whole must be kept in view. For example, 
if a man is producing milk, it may be 
cheaper, so far as the production of milk is 
concerned, to allow the liquid excrement to 
run to waste rather than to arrange for suffi- 
cient bedding. If, however, by using an 
abundance of bedding and saving all the 
high-priced nitrogen and the larger part of 
the potash in the manure, he is able to raise 
twelve tons of silage in place of eight tons, 
90 



THE FARM SCHEME 

or three tons of hay in place of two tons, his 
enterprise as a whole will be more profitable 
when he uses the extra amount of bedding, 
although so far as the production of a quart 
of milk is concerned the cost is increased. 
It may be that by feeding corn to cattle or 
sheep one will obtain only 50 cents a bushel 
for his maize, while his neighbor is selling 
it to the elevator at 60 cents. If, however, 
the man who feeds his maize year after year 
thereby raises 60 bushels instead of 40 
bushels, his enterprise, as a whole, may be 
more profitable than that of his neighbor. 

As a matter of fact, the Pennsylvania ex- 
periment station has substantially these two 
conditions in certain of its fertilizer plats. 
When for 25 years the conditions have been 
similar to those where crops are sold from 
the farm, the yields have been: Maize, 42 
bushels ; oats, 32 bushels ; wheat, 14 bushels ; 
and hay, 2,783 pounds per acre. But when 
conditions exist which represent the feeding 
of corn, oats and hay and the return of 
manure to the soil, the yields have been: 
Maize, 58 bushels; oats, 41 bushels; wheat, 

91 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

23 bushels; and hay 4,190 pounds per acre. 
In the first instance the value of the pro- 
ducts has been $15.75 ^^ slctq, while in the 
other case it has been $22.90 an acre. 

Having worked out a cropping system 
that gives the proper yearly production of 
several crops desired, the next question to 
decide is how this cropping system and the 
disposition of the crops is going to affect 
the fertility of the soil. From a financial or 
economic point of view the most important 
soil element is nitrogen. First, because it 
costs from 18 to 20 cents a pound, while 
phosphoric acid can be purchased at five 
cents, potash at four cents; and, second, be- 
cause of the readiness with which nitro- 
gen may disappear from the soil under im- 
proper management, either through nitrifi- 
cation and leaching or by denitrification and 
passing back into the air. 

Assuming a given type of management, 
the question is. How much of the required 
nitrogen will be obtained from the legumes 
in the cropping system, how much from the 
manure, and how much must be purchased 

92 



THE FARM SCHEME 

in commercial fertilizers? No satisfactory- 
cropping system can be devised at the pres- 
ent prices of farm products and cost of 
fertilizers for the production of the ordi- 
nary cereals and hay that does not include 
the production of some legume. Assuming a 
legume in the cropping scheme, the fertility 
of the soil may be maintained by yard ma- 
nure alone or by commercial fertilizers 
alone. Illustrations of both methods are to 
be found in actual practice. Generally 
speaking, however, the use of yard manure 
supplemented with commercial fertilizers 
will be found more scientific and in the end 
the most economical. 

A factor entering into this problem will 
be the amount of purchased feed. If con- 
siderable amounts of purchased feeds are 
used and the resulting manure carefully pre- 
served and judiciously applied, the com- 
mercial fertilizers required will be reduced 
to the minimum. 

A concrete illustration may bring out the 
philosophy underlying farm schemes better 
than abstract problems. 
93 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

The following outline shows a five-course 
rotation with the method of fertilization 
which the results of the Pennsylvania Sta- 
tion indicated would be advisable, at least 
on limestone soils in eastern United States. 

1. Maize yard manure, 8 tons per acre. 

2. Oats nothing. 

3. Wheat acid phosphate, 350 lbs. 

muriate of potash, 100 lbs. 

4.. Clover and timothy nothing. 

5. Timothy nitrate of soda, 150 lbs. 

acid phosphate, 150 lbs. 

muriate of potash, 50 lbs. 

This rotation is suggested for the purpose 
of maintaining a farm that is already in a 
fairly fertile condition and one on which 
there is no considerable amount of pur- 
chased feed. Where concentrates are pur- 
chased liberally, yard manure should be 
available to use on the timothy and meadow 
in place of the commercial fertilizers. 

Where there is plenty of manure and it is 
desired to increase the amount of maize and 
hay and reduce the amount of oats and 
wheat, the following rotation and method of 
fertilization would be indicated: 
94 



THE FARM SCHEME 

1. Maize acid phosphate, 200 lbs. 

2. Maize yard manure, 8 tons. 

3. Oats nothing. 

4. Wheat acid phosphate, 350 lbs. 

muriate of potash, 100 lbs. 

5. Clover and timothy nothing. 

6. Timothy nitrate of soda, 150 lbs. 

acid phosphate, 150 lbs. 
muriate of potash, 50 lbs. 

7. Timothy yard manure, 8 tons. 

Where there is plenty of yard manure, it 
would be also applied to maize under No. 
I, or the yard manure could be applied to 
maize under No. i, and commercial ferti- 
lizer applied to timothy under No. 6 could 
be repeated under No. 7. If the land is 
more or less depleted, an application of 200 
pounds of acid phosphate to the oats would 
be advisable. However, the purpose is 
not to prescribe exact methods, but to point 
out underlying principles and their possi- 
ble application. 

As further illustration, it seems probable 
that the practice of a market gardener in 
using excessive amounts of stable manure 
might, in some instances at least, be modi- 
fied to good advantage by reducing the 
amount of manure and increasing the 
95 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

amount of commercial fertilizer used. Un- 
fortunately there is no experimental evi- 
dence bearing upon this question. 

Potash required to maintain fertility is 
largely to be found in the coarse fodder, 
such as hay, maize stover and silage, and in 
the straw used for bedding; hence where 
these substances are used in abundance and 
returned to the soil the amount of potash 
required to be supplied in fertilizers is re- 
duced to a minimum. Where, however, the 
amount of live stock is limited and the 
products sold contain large quantities of 
potash, such as hay and straw, the supply 
furnished in fertilizers must be liberal. 

Phosphoric acid is always being slowly 
depleted from the soil either from the sale 
of farm crops or animal products. There is 
no way of returning this loss completely, 
except from the addition of a commercial 
fertilizer. 

The above fertilizer suggestions are based 
on the experiments covering a period of 
more than 25 years on a limestone soil. 
Soils may modify materially the amount 

96 



THE FARM SCHEME 

and application of the fertilizers, but not 
the principles enunciated. For example, a 
soil on which common red clover grows 
luxuriantly and has a prominent place in the 
farm scheme will require less nitrogen in 
commercial fertilizers in order to maintain 
the fertility than where legumes are raised 
with difficulty or do not form a part of the 
farm scheme. 

One of the most important points to be 
emphasized is the fact that haphazard fer- 
tilization is not effective in maintaining soil 
fertility. If one starts out to establish a five- 
course rotation and build up his soil through 
a rational system of fertilization, he will 
obviously not obtain the full benefit of the 
rotation until he begins to get crops from 
the second round, which will be the sixth 
year from the beginning. It may happen, 
and unfortunately it has perhaps usually 
happened in the past, that during the first 
rotation the increase in crops has not paid 
for the cost of the fertilizers applied. In 
many instances a rational system of ferti- 
lization has not been introduced because 

97 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

the owner of the land could not afford to 
wait six years for his return. Profit in farm- 
ing, therefore, does not consist in raising one 
big crop or even in obtaining a large bal- 
ance on the right side of the ledger in a 
single year. It is both interesting and valu- 
able to know that five tons of timothy hay, 
45 bushels of wheat, lOO bushels of maize 
and 40 tons of cabbage may be raised on an 
acre, but the real profit in farming only 
comes through a lifetime of effort. To the 
man of capacity who prepares for his work 
the results will surely come, but they will 
not come all at once and, as in every other 
business, he must pay the price in hard work 
and close application to details. 

In this connection it may be emphasized 
that one of the difficulties in successful 
farming is to find one man both inter- 
ested and capable along the various lines 
essential to a successful farm enter- 
prise. The danger is that a man will 
ride his hobby to the detriment of the 
other activities of the farm. A farmer 
friend of the writer, who keeps a horse and 

98 



THE FARM SCHEME 

buggy, cares so little for a horse that for sev- 
eral years he has walked two miles each 
morning and each evening rather than to 
take the trouble to hitch up his horse. If 
one visits a high-grade breeder of dairy cat- 
tle, he is very apt to find his pigs of ordinary 
character. On the other hand, a specialist 
in hogs is likely to keep scrub cows. A man 
may be an excellent wheat raiser and a poor 
potato grower, and the reverse. The breeder 
of live stock is likely to be lacking in his 
methods of producing farm crops, while the 
up-to-date, so-called general farmer is not 
likely to be a special lover of live stock. In 
like manner, the man may be a successful 
farmer, dairyman or horticulturist from the 
producing side, but be a poor salesman. In 
fact, those qualities of mind and heart which 
make for the best success from the stand- 
point of production, whether soil products 
or animal products, is not that which makes 
the best trader. 

It is not expected that the young farmer 
will be materially different from his hun- 
dreds of thousands of predecessors, but the 

99 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

better a man is trained and the more fully 
he studies his own adaptabilities and defi- 
ciencies, the more likely he is to succeed in 
the open country. For this reason, the 
young man should be careful to get as broad 
a training as possible. It is, therefore, often 
more important for him to study those 
things which he dislikes than to study the 
things for which he has a natural taste. 

There was a man in our town 

And he was wondrous wise. 
He knew that if he wanted crops 

He'd have to fertilize. 
"It's nitrogen that makes things green," 

Said this man of active brain ; 
"And potash makes the good strong straw, 

And phosphate plumps the grain. 
But it's clearly wrong to waste plant food 

On a wet and soggy field; 
I'll surely have to put in drains 

If I'd increase the yield. 
"And after I have drained the land 

I must plow it deep all over; 
And even then I'll not succeed 

Unless it will grow clover. 
Now, acid soils will not produce 

A clover sod that's prime; 
So if I have a sour soil, 

I'll have to put on lime. 
"And after doing all these things. 

To make success more sure, 
I'll try my very best to keep 

From wasting the manure. 
So I'll drain, and lime, and cultivate, 

With all that that implies; 
And when I've done that thoroughly 

I'll manure and fertilize." Vivian 

TOO 



T 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ROTATION OF CROPS 

HE two essential reasons for a rotation 
of crops are: (i) The possibility of 
obtaining for the soil a supply of nitrogen 
from the air by introducing a legume at 
regular intervals, and (2) the prevention of 
injury to the crops from fungous diseases, 
insect enemies, weeds or other causes. Other 
reasons are often advanced, some of which 
are entirely erroneous, while others are of 
quite secondary importance. 

The rotation should be carefully studied 
with reference to the farm scheme as pre- 
viously outlined. Reasons for modifying 
the rotations are: (i) To change the kind 
or proportion of crops grown, (2) to change 
the amount of labor required, or (3) to in- 
crease the crop-producing power of the soil. 

During 25 years the four crops of maize, 
oats, wheat, timothy and clover hay have 
been taken in rotation from the four tiers 
of plats at the Pennsylvania State College, 

lOI 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

SO that the influence of the soil has been 
entirely eliminated. At the December farm 
prices for the decade ending December i, 
1906, the value of these four crops per acre 
have been: Maize, $29.67; oats, $14.49; 
wheat, $18.49; and hay, $18.05. I^ will be 
noted that during 25 years the average in- 
come from an acre of maize has been almost 
exactly twice that from an acre of oats. The 
region where these results were obtained is 
relatively unfavorable to a large yield of 
maize. It is obvious, therefore, that a mod- 
ification in the rotation may modify the 
average income from the farm materially, 
■provided such modification does not reduce 
the fertility of the soil. Thus, while the 
average income per acre during 25 years for 
the four-course rotation above mentioned 
was $20.17, if the rotation were increased to 
a five-course rotation by the addition of an- 
other year of maize, the average income 
would be $22.45 an acre. 

It may be desirable to modify the rota- 
tion in order to increase or decrease a cer- 
tain crop usually fed upon the farm. Thus, 
102 



THE ROTATION OF CROPS 

with a four-course rotation of maize, oats, 
wheat, clover and timothy, one-fourth the 
area would produce hay; while with a six- 
course rotation, composed of maize, oats, 
wheat, each one year, and hay three years, 
one-half the area would produce hay. If it 
is desired to still further reduce the area in 
oats and wheat, a seven-course rotation could 
be arranged with maize, two years in suc- 
cession. This is the rotation that would be 
desirable for a dairy farm where it is 
planned to keep as many cows as practicable 
and to buy the concentrates largely. Either 
the wheat or the oats could be taken out of 
this rotation if either the one or the other 
were thought undesirable and a still greater 
amount of roughage desired. 

On the other hand, there are places where 
the minimum amount of roughage is 
wanted. There are certain sections of the 
central West where it is possible to sow 
oats on corn stubble without plowing and 
where occasionally a rotation is practiced of 
maize, oats and mammoth clover. The 
clover is plowed for maize, the oats are 
103 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

disked in upon the corn stubble and the 
next year the clover is pastured until about 
June I, when it is allowed to go to seed. In 
this rotation the only roughage obtained is 
the corn stover and the oat straw. 

Another result reached by this rotation is 
that only one-third the land is plowed an- 
nually. In the four-course rotation men- 
tioned above three-fourths of the land must 
be plowed, while in the six-course rotation 
one-half is plowed each year. In other 
ways the character of the rotation modifies 
the labor. For example, the labor and cost of 
harvesting an acre of hay is much less than 
that of producing, harvesting and thresh- 
ing an acre of wheat. 

Rotations may often be planned with 
reference to the main or cash crop. Thus in 
the Aroostook (Maine) potato district the 
rotation is potatoes, oats and clover. The 
chief purpose of the oats and clover is to 
keep down the blight in potatoes and add 
through the clover nitrogen and organic 
matter to the soil. 

A system of cropping that is best 
104 



THE ROTATION OF CROPS 

when the owner operates the farm may 
not be desirable when the farmer is a 
tenant. When a farm is rented, the 
lease should provide that clover or other 
legumes occur with sufficient frequency to 
keep up the supply of nitrogen without the 
purchase of a considerable quantity in chem- 
ical fertilizers. The lease should be so 
drawn as to make it necessary for the tenant 
to keep live stock in order to realize the 
largest profit. The landlord should pro- 
vide an equitable proportion of the mineral 
fertilizers when such are required. 

The provisions of the lease and the char- 
acter of the rotation will necessarily vary 
with circumstances, but the following sys- 
tem of tenant farming which has been em- 
ployed for many years in Maryland will 
illustrate the principles just stated: 

The lease provides for a five-course rota- 
tion consisting of maize, wheat, clover, 
wheat, clover. The landlord and the ten- 
ant share the maize and wheat equally, but 
the clover for hay or pasture goes entirely 
to the tenant, unless hay is sold, when it is 
105 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

divided equally. They each provide one- 
half the commercial fertilizer and one-half 
the seed, except clover seed, which the ten- 
ant is required to furnish. 

This lease provides for two clover crops 
out of every five crops raised, thus supply- 
ing nitrogen abundantly, and the terms of 
the lease are such that it is necessary for the 
tenant to keep live stock to consume these 
clover crops in order to secure the most 
profitable returns. The feeding of the 
clover makes it necessary to feed some or all 
the maize and may lead to buying addi- 
tional concentrates. 

Stable manure is thereby supplied for the 
field which is to raise maize, while mineral 
fertilizers may be applied to the fields 
sown to wheat. On the limestone soils of 
the eastern states 50 pounds each of phos- 
phoric acid and potash per acre applied to 
the wheat, and 10 loads of stable manure per 
acre to the maize will probably be found 
sufficient to maintain the crop producing 
power of the soil. 

In laying out a farm for a rotation it is 
106 



THE ROTATION OF CROPS 

desirable to plan the number of fields or 
tracts that will go in a rotation and try to 
get these as nearly equal size as possible. 
Having decided upon the number of years 
the rotation is to run and having adjusted 
the fields or tracts accordingly, it is quite 
possible to modify the proportion of crops 
by adding one crop and dropping another 
at the same time. Thus, if there are six 20- 
acre fields, any one of the following rota- 
tions might be used and the change from one 
to another easiiy made: 



I. 


Maize 


Maize 


Maize 


Maize 


Maize 


2. 


Oats 


Maize 


Maize 


Maize 


Barlev 


3- 


Wheat 


Oats 


Oats 


Wheat 


Alfalfa 


4- 


Clover and 


Wheat 


Clover and 


Clover and 


Alfalfa 




timothy 




timothy 


timothy 




5- 


Timothy 


Clover and 
timothy 


Timothy 


Timothy 


Alfalfa 


6. 


Timothy 


Timothy 


Timothy 


Timothy 


Alfalfa 



During the first year the 20-acre field 
could be divided into four tracts of five 
acres each, containing potatoes, cabbage, 
tomatoes and sweet corn, and then followed 
for four or five years by any succession of 
crops above outlined. The point is that a 
definite adjustment of the farm to some gen- 
107 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

eral method of rotation and a definite sys- 
tem of fertilization and soil renovation do 
not prevent a considerable latitude in the 
crops raised. It will be obvious that the 
longer the rotation the more flexible it be- 
comes in this particular, which is a point 
to be considered in laying out the farm and 
in adjusting fields and fences. 

In some cases it may be desirable on ac- 
count of the arrangement of the farm or the 
character of the crops to be raised to have 
two distinct rotations of crops. For exam- 
ple, if the farm lends itself to be divided into 
eight tracts, a five-course rotation of maize, 
oats, wheat, each one year, and clover and 
timothy two years, and a three-course rota- 
tion of potatoes, oats or wheat and clover 
may be arranged. 



io8 



CHAPTER X 
THE EQUIPMENT 

THE workman is known by his tools. 
The problem of obtaining the most 
efficient machinery for the conduct of the 
farm without having an excessive amount is 
not easy of solution. 

It is probable that the cost of maintain- 
ing machinery and tools is not less than 15%, 
10% for upkeep and 5% for interest, even 
under the most careful management. Doubt- 
less in practice it is as much as 25%. If this 
is conceded there must be a limit to the 
amount which may be economically in- 
vested in equipment. This is a place where 
the lead pencil may be used profitably. For 
example, if $125 is invested in a self-binder, 
the annual cost of the machine at 15% will 
be $18.75. I^ o"^ has but 15 acres of grain 
to harvest, it may be better to hire 
a self-binder at $1 an acre. On the other 
hand, it may be necessary to own a self- 
109 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

binder in order to get the grain harvested at 
the proper time. 

Among the machines requiring a consid- 
erable investment for the number of days 
used may be mentioned hay loaders, hay ted- 
ders, corn-binding harvesters and lime 
spreaders. There is a certain class of labor- 
saving devices, however, for which there is 
more or less constant need, as, for example, 
means of pumping water, methods of 
handling manure, both fron^ the stable to 
the manure shed, and from the manure shed 
to the field. This leads to the remark that 
there is at present great need of modifying 
our traditional ideas concerning farm barns. 
Why do persons usually sleep on the second 
floor, while horses and cattle are placed in 
the basement? Three things have brought 
about the need of a radical revision of our 
practices concerning the planning of barns: 
(i) Our present knowledge of the differ- 
ence in the function of food in keeping the 
animal warm, and that of producing work, 
flesh or milk; (2) the discovery of the 
bacillus of tuberculosis; and (3) the inven- 

IIO 



THE EQUIPMENT 

tion of the hay carrier. It is not the pur- 
pose here to discuss barn buildings, but 
merely to call attention to the fact that the 
traditional barn has long since outlived its 
usefulness, and that the young farmer should 
plan hi-s farm buildings to serve the pur- 
poses required in the light of modern 
knowledge. 

Various attempts have been made to man- 
ufacture combined machines; that is, a ma- 
chine which, by an interchange of parts or 
other modification, may be used for two or 
more purposes, as, for example, harvesting 
small grain and cutting grass. Such at- 
tempts have usually been unsuccessful. On 
the other hand, the young farmer should 
consider the range of usefulness of any given 
type of machine or tool; thus, a disk harrow 
is more efficient for some purposes than a 
spring-tooth harrow. For other purposes 
the spike-tooth harrow is better than the 
spring tooth. The spring-tooth harrow, 
however, will do fairly well wherever the 
disk harrow or the spike-tooth harrow is 
needed. When, therefore, only one of these 
III 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

tools can be afforded, the spring tooth may 
be a better tool to buy than either the disk or 
the spike-tooth, although it is not for certain 
purposes as efficient as either of the others. 
The kind of machine should obviously be 
adjusted to the conditions, as, for example, 
the size of the farm, and the character of the 
farming. Riding plows may be desirable 
on level land, but where it is necessary to 
plow up and down hill, walking plows 
should be used. The extra weight of the 
wheel plow is not a serious matter on level 
land, because the sliding friction has been 
transferred to rolling friction, but no 
mechanical device has been or can be in- 
vented which will decrease the power 
necessary to raise a given weight a given 
height. The various machines requiring 
horse power should be adjusted, as far as 
possible, to require the same number of 
horses. If the main unit is three horses, 
then, as far as possible, all machines should 
require three horses, such as plows, harrows, 
manure spreaders, harvesters, etc. If the 
activities of the farm are sufficient to require 

112 



THE EQUIPMENT 

six horses then some of the tools may require 
three horses each, while others require a 
pair. 

A farm with six work horses is rather a 
desirable one from several aspects. Among 
other things, it enables the farm owner to 
employ two men who can perform most of 
the team work with two three-horse teams, 
while at other times three pairs of horses 
may be arranged when the owner needs to 
use a team. This leaves the farmer time to 
attend to many activities not requiring 
horses, and time to plan the work and to 
look with more care after the purchases and 
sales. The size of such a farm will depend 
entirely on the nature of the activities. If it 
is a so-called general farm with a minimum 
of live stock, it would, perhaps, consist of 
from 150 to 180 acres of tillable land with 
some additional pasture and woodland.. 
Ideally, every farm should have sufficient 
activity to make it something of a center. It 
should be an organism. It is difficult to 
organize one man. 

It will be useful, when we come to discuss 

113 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

how profits may be estimated, to divide the 
capital into three general groups: (i) The 
plant, which in addition to the real estate, 
will include the machines and tools, horses 
used for labor, and other animals used for 
breeding purposes or for the production of 
animal products, such as butter, wool or 
eggs; (2) materials, which will include 
animals which are to be fattened for sale, 
and all seeds, fertilizers and foods intended 
to be turned into products to be sold; (3) 
supplies, which may include foods for 
teams, and money with which to pay labor, 
be this labor that of the farmer or his em- 
ployees. 

The purpose of this classification is to 
bring sharply into view the fact that the 
nature of different kinds of equipment 
varies. All the things named under the plant 
are in the nature of an annual charge against 
income. The charge under materials may 
or may not be an annual charge. If a man 
invests $2,000 in 50 head of cattle, which he 
intends to feed and sell for $3,250 at the end 
of one hundred days, he does not have to 
114 



THE EQUIPMENT 

calculate interest on $2,000 for a year, but 
only for 100 days. Cattle paper is held in 
large quantities by banks in the cattle feed- 
ing districts of the United States. The 
farmer would, in fact, be unwise to keep 
$2,000 in the bank nine months in the year 
in order to use it three months. Like any 
other business man, if he has the money, he 
invests it and borrows the money to buy his 
cattle. The same thing applies to food and 
fertilizers. If the food is fed to cattle, some 
of the money invested in the food must pay 
interest during the fattening period. Food 
fed to dairy cattle and chickens may be paid 
for out of each day's income. In practice, 
the amount of money invested in food for 
dairy cattle and chickens is dependent only 
upon the most economical unit of purchase. 
One may apply fertilizers to buckwheat, 
give a three months' note for the 
fertilizer, and pay the note out of the 
proceeds of the crop. If the fertilizer is 
applied to one-year-old apple trees, this in- 
vestment may be required to pay interest for 
fifteen years. 

115 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

The same principle applies to supplies. 
If one starts into raising horses for sale, he 
needs to have some money or other income 
on which his laborers and his own family 
can live, say for five years, this being the 
age at which a horse is supposed to become 
salable. More people would raise apples 
and horses if they could afiford to wait for 
the return on the investment. 

While this is a serious handicap, it is an 
advantage to the man who arranges his 
farming methods so that he can secure an 
income from some other source in the in- 
terim. The young farmer will do wisely to 
so arrange his farm methods that a portion, 
perhaps the major portion of his farm, will 
give him quick returns while making 
some long-time investments, which later in 
life will give him a greater return because 
so few people are sufficiently forehanded to 
make them. 



ii6 



CHAPTER XI 
HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

NO man who engages in manufacturing 
or merchandising knows how much 
he is going to make annually during life. 
Much less does he know how much he will 
be worth when he dies. Neither does the 
man who works for a salary or practices 
some profession for fees know what his 
annual income will be even during the fol- 
lowing decade. Neither one nor the other 
knows whether he will die a millionaire or a 
pauper. It is a problem too complex for 
any human mind to analyze. It is less cer- 
tain than what the weather will be on this 
day next year, because it is the resultant of 
more variable factors. 

In some respects there is more hazard in 
farming than in manufacturing or in mer- 
chandising, while in other respects there is 
much less. The profit which may be ob- 
tained from farming is neither easier nor 
more difficult to estimate than is that of 
117 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Other commercial enterprises. However, 
there is no business in which more foolish 
estimates are made as to the probable profits, 
except, perhaps, in mining. 

The purpose of this chapter is not to give 
advice as to possible or probable profits, but 
rather to point out the general character of 
the data required for any individual prob- 
lem, where the data may be obtained and 
how it may be applied. 

There are two forms or methods of stat- 
ing the financial gain that has been obtained 
from farming or other business ventures 
during a year or other specific period. The 
first may be called the interest on the invest- 
ment method, and the second the labor in- 
come method. 
/^ With the interest on the investment 
method, all expenses may be subtracted 
from all the sales. From the cash balance 
thus obtained the increase or decrease in 
inventory may be added or subtracted. This 
balance may then be divided by the capital 
invested, to determine the rate of interest 
received. 

ii8 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

The rate of interest method is the usual 
method in the commercial world. The 
prosperity of the railroad or industrial con- 
cern is judged by the rate of interest it pays 
its stockholders on the par value of the 
stock. The stock itself takes on the capital- 
isation in accordance with the present and 
prospective dividends. The fact that this 
method is generally used in the commercial 
world is evidence that it is well suited to its 
needs. 

The young farmer who wishes to know 
whether the operation of a given tract of 
land in a certain manner offers him a worthy 
opportunity will not find the interest on the 
investment method the best suited for his 
purpose. This is especially true when ap- 
plied to a single product. For example, it 
may be shown that 50 hens will, when 
properly managed, in connection with other 
farm enterprises, return a remarkable inter- 
est on the capital employed. It does not fol- 
low, however, that a man can make a living 
with fifty hens or even 500 hens. If a man 
has an investment of $5,000, on which he 
119 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

obtains lo per cent, his income would be 
$500. If, on the other hand, he has an in- 
vestment of $25,000 and obtains a return of 
only 6%, his income is $1,500, or three 
times the former amount. In neither case, 
however, does this form of statement tell a 
man how much of his income is due to his 
brain and brawn and how much to the capi- 
tal invested. 

What the young farmer wishes to know is 
how much will he receive for his own time, 
energy and skill, after deducting all ex- 
penses and a reasonable interest charge on 
his investment — such a rate of interest as he 
could get by placing his money in good 
securities or what he would be required to 
pay for his capital if he borrowed it. This 
is best obtained by the labor income method. 
With this method all expenses are sub- 
tracted from all sales and to the cash bal- 
ance thus obtained is added or subtracted 
the increase or decrease in the inventory. 
This balance may be called the farm in- 
come. Thus far the procedure is just the 
same as the interest on the investment 
120 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

method. From the farm income is now sub- 
tracted a reasonable interest on the invest- 
ment, the balance remaining is called the 
labor income. This is the return which the 
farmer has obtained by and for his own 
efforts. If this balance is zero, then he 
should change his methods or get into some 
other business. 

This statement of his income, whatever 
it may be, enables him to compare his pros- 
perity with that of the man who is employed 
upon a salary. Here, again, however, it is 
difficult to make comparisons because of the 
differences in expenses of living. The chief 
difference, however, in the expense of the 
wage earner in the city and the farmer is in 
the matter of house rent. For example, if 
the wage earner pays $300 a year house rent 
that must be deducted from his income in 
comparing it with the labor income of the 
farmer. It is often stated that the farmer 
also has his living from the farm. This was 
much more true formerly than it is at pres- 
ent. Under present methods of distributing 
food products and v/ith modern types of 
121 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

farming, the amount of food supplied the 
table from the farm is comparatively small. 
The rancher in Montana eats foods canned 
in Maine or Delaware, while the New 
Hampshire farmer buys his vegetables -rom 
Boston commission merchants. The Min- 
nesota farmer cannot supply his breakfast 
table with oranges, grapefruit or oatmeal. 
Many of them buy, if not their bread, at 
least their flour, and also their butter. The 
fact that the city man indulges in high liv- 
ing is no argument in favor of the country 
man expecting less wages. Some of those 
things which are necessary to make the 
country an ideal place to live are expensive. 
Some of them are more expensive to obtain 
in the country than in the city, as, for ex- 
ample, educational facilities. In justifying 
his purchase of an automobile, a young 
farmer recently stated that his wife had cer- 
tain cares, responsibilities and even priva- 
tions which her city friends did not have. 
He thought that the automobile would help 
to offset them. 

To my mind there is no more ideal place 

122 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

to live and rear a family than in the open 
country when the conditions are what they 
should be and may be. I believe, however, 
it is well to insist that it costs something to 
live in the country as well as in the city if 
one lives as well as every farmer has a right 
to expect to live. 

Let us now consider the steps necessary 
in order to arrive at a fair estimate of the 
labor income. To make the matter con- 
crete, we will assume a farm of 200 acres 
worth $60 an acre located in central Penn- 
sylvania on a limestone clay loam soil over 
1,000 feet above sea level. This farm is to 
contain 20 acres of timber, a 30-acre apple 
orchard two years old, 40 acres of pasture, 
96 acres of cultivated land divided into six 
i6-acre fields. The rest of the 200 acres 
consists of small yards, roadways and waste 
land. One-half of each of the six i6-acre 
fields is to consist of a rotation of maize, oats 
and wheat, each one year, and hay three 
years, the latter clover and timothy followed 
by timothy. The other half is to consist of 
maize, barley, followed by alfalfa four 
123 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

years. In the young orchard there will be 
grown for a few years potatoes, tomatoes, 
cabbages and garden peas. After the 
orchard attains a size which forbids these 
intertilled crops, a portion of the pasture 
may be broken up so that these market gar- 
den crops may be raised. There will be 
kept six horses, 20 milch cows, 20 ewes of 
some mutton breed of sheep, five brood sows 
and 50 hens. 

First of all, let attention be called to the 
broad knowledge of farming required to 
operate this moderate-sized and compara- 
tively simple farm. The crops to be raised 
are maize, oats, wheat, clover, alfalfa, tim- 
othy, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, garden 
peas and apples. The animal products sold 
will be chiefly butter fat, wool, mutton, veal, 
pork and eggs. This is neither a long nor 
complex list of products. They are all 
adapted to the farm which the writer has in 
mind. Yet the man who operates this farm 
to the highest success will need to have a 
knowledge of agronomy, or the raising of 
field crops, of horticulture, animal hus- 
124 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

bandry, including poultry husbandry and 
dairying. He needs to have a good under- 
standing of the principles of agricultural 
chemistry, to have a knowledge of how to 
prevent and combat fungous diseases and 
insect enemies. To get the most out of his 
timber land he should know at least some of 
the first principles of forestry, and if he has 
gained some instruction in the study of land- 
scape gardening, his home will be more 
attractive, and his farm a source of greater 
pleasure to him. 

^ To proceed with the estimate, the first 
thing to be done is to make a record of the 
cropping system, giving the areas and the 
estimated production of each crop. How 
is the yield per acre to be determined? 
Clearly, one cannot afford to estimate his 
profits on the basis of some unusual yields. 
If one could be assured of 40 bushels of 
wheat, 60 bushels of oats, five tons of hay, 
300 bushels of potatoes, or 200 bushels of 
apples per acre, or 500 pounds of butter fat 
per cow, or 150 eggs per hen per year, there 
would be no difficulty about obtaining a 
125 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

snug labor income. Such results are 
possible and are appropriate ideals for 
which to strive, but are not safe as estimates 
on which to do business. 

The year books of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture contain the annual 
estimate of the yields, and the average De- 
cember farm price of staple crops by states. 
These figures may serve as a basis for mak- 
ing estimates. If the natural conditions are 
about the average stated, one may properly 
assume that he can obtain an increase of 
50%. He may even hope to double the yield, 
although it is not safe to assume such an in- 
crease in making an estimate of profits. If 
the natural conditions are more favorable or 
less favorable than the average, he must take 
the fact into consideration in his estimates. 
In the same way he may consider whether 
the average December farm price represents 
fairly his expectation of the price, or 
whether because of favorable location or 
superior quality of the article purchased he 
can expect higher remuneration. 

It is here assumed that the young farmer 
126 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

is himself going to be more than an average 
farmer. If he is not he will only get aver- 
age results, in which case his labor income 
will be only that of the ordinary day 
laborer. 

To repeat the idea in concrete terms. If 
the young farmer is located in central Penn- 
sylvania and finds that the average yield of 
wheat for the state is 17 bushels an acre, he 
may safely estimate that his improved 
methods will bring him 25 bushels of wheat 
to the acre. He may even hope for 34 
bushels per acre. At the Pennsylvania sta- 
tion several varieties of wheat have, during 
the past 18 years, averaged over 30 bushels 
per acre. One year one variety produced 
43 bushels. It would not be safe, however, 
to use such figures in estimating profits. 

Having outlined the cropping system and 
made a careful estimate of the total annual 
production of each crop, the next step is to 
determine the amount of food and bedding 
required for the live stock. From this data 
it may be determined what products will be 
available for sale, and what foodstuffs must 
127 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

be bought. Thus, it may be found, for ex- 
ample, that the amount of oats raised just 
meets the requirement, while more maize 
must be purchased, together with nitroge- 
nous concentrates, and that a portion of the 
hay is available for sale. In the farm under 
consideration there will, of course, be wheat, 
potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, garden peas 
and the animal products previously men- 
tioned for sale, and later there will be 
apples and some lumber from the wood lot. 

The data are now at hand by which to esti- 
mate the total receipts. Having made the 
estimates of receipts, the expenses are esti- 
mated, and the difference gives the cash 
balance, if there is any. The most important 
items of expense will be labor, feed, seeds, 
fertilizers, harvesting and threshing ex- 
penses, spraying material, shipping pack- 
ages, blacksmithing and repairs. After all 
expenses that can be thought of are included 
not less than io% should be added for in- 
cidental expenses. 

The amount of commercial or natural 
fertilizers to be purchased is, of course, 
128 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

related to the yard manure which will be 
produced on the farm; therefore some esti- 
mate of the probable amount is desirable. 
In a roughly empirical way the amount of 
manure produced may be estimated at twice 
the amount of dry food and bedding used, 
JDrovided it is hauled daily to the field. 
Where stored and drawn to the field at 
stated periods, the shrinkage in weight, 
although not necessarily in plant food, may 
be as much as one-half. 

The estimate of what the inventory should 
be at the beginning and end of the year is 
not so simple a matter as it may at first seem 
to be. The purpose of taking the inventory 
is twofold: First, to determine whether the 
inventory has increased or decreased, and 
second, to determine on what amount of cap- 
ital interest is to be calculated. For 
example, one must carry forward each year 
seed for the next year's crop. Feed must be 
carried over to feed live stock until other 
food becomes available, and there must be 
money on hand with which to pay for labor 
129 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

unless there is a cash income from the sale 
of products sufficient to care for the labor 
bills. 

In the case of the farm under considera- 
tion there is a young orchard of about one 
thousand trees. This orchard is not bring- 
ing in any income, but there is a constant 
expenditure of money on it, and a constant 
increase in its value. While, therefore, it 
decreases the cash income it increases the 
farm income and the labor income. On the 
other hand, it increases the interest charges 
because the plant or farm is increasing in 
value. How much will it increase in value? 
In some sections it is customary to consider 
that an orchard increases in value $i per 
tree per year. If this is a correct estimate, 
this i,ooo-tree orchard will increase the 
value of the farm $i,ooo a year until it 
comes into full bearing. The farm under 
consideration was purchased two years ago 
for $9,500. On the assumption just stated, 
at the end of 15 years from date of purchase 
this farm should be worth $25,000, at least 
$15,000 of which will be due to a 30-acre 
130 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 

orchard. This is at the rate of $500 an acre 
for the orchard itself. 

In order to bring out some of the phases 
of the inventory more clearly the following 
classification of items is given below: 

INVENTORY 

A. Plant. 

The real estate, 200 acres at $60 per acre. 
The live stock. 

Work horses and breeding stock. 
Machinery. 

B. Materials. 

Seeds, potatoes, oats, maize, wheat. 

Feed, hay for cattle and sheep, silage for cows, maize for 

pigs. 
Growing wheat, 8 acres at $6 per acre. 
Live stock, calves, lambs and pigs. 

C. Supplies. 

Hay and oats for horses. 
Money for current expenses. 

In estimating the inventory at the end of 
the year, a deduction should be made for the 
decrease in the value of the live stock under 
the plant and also for the machinery. Per- 
haps 5% for the live stock and lo^ for the 
machinery and tools will be a fair deduc- 
tion. Under materials and supplies those 

131 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

items have been inventoried which are to be 
carried over each year from the preceding 
year. In the case of seeds the amount 
required must be deducted from the amount 
sold, or they must appear as a charge in the 
expense account. Ordinarily they are car- 
ried over from year to year and thus become 
a part of the permanent investment. Since 
on the farm under consideration there is a 
considerable monthly income from the sale 
of butter fat and eggs, it may be possible 
that no allowance will be needed in the 
inventory for current expenses, although it 
is always desirable to carry a bank account 
in order to be able to make favorable pur- 
chases when opportunity ofifers. 

As a part of the work in a course in farm 
management, the writer asked each student 
to secure the financial history of an actual 
farm covering a period of three years. The 
financial history of 30 farms during the 
years 1901 to 1903, inclusive, and 28 farms 
during the years 1902- 1904, inclusive, was 
thus obtained and is given herewith. 
132 



HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS 



SUMMARY OF FINANCIAL HISTORY OF FARMS 

Average size of farm, acres 143.21 133 

Average area in crops (includes pas- 
ture), acres 121. i 112 

Capital at end of three-year period $14,009 $8,893 

Capital at beginning three-year period — 12,962 7)704 

Difference $i|047 $1,189 

Interest on capital, $13,485, at 5 per cent* $674 $415 

Increase in capital per annum 349 396 

Average yearly receipts 3,613 2,208 

Average yearly disbursements 1,907 1,221 

Average yearly cash balance 1,706 987 

Average yearly farm income 2,055 1,383 

Average yearly labor income 1,381 968 

These figures show the application of 
principles enunciated in this chapter. A 
careful reader will have no difficulty in 
recognizing how the different items have 
been obtained. For example, the difference 
between the receipts and disbursements in 
the first column gives the cash balance of 
$1,706. The farm income, $2,055, is obtain- 
ed by adding to the cash balance $349, 
which is the annual increase in the capital. 
The labor income is obtained by subtract- 



*Obtained by dividing by two the sum of capital at begin- 
ning and end of three-year period. 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

ing from the farm income the interest on the 
capital at five per cent. The amount of 
capital is determined by dividing by two 
the sum of the inventories at the beginning 
and end of the period.* 

It will be noted that the gross receipts, 
the expenses, the farm income and the labor 
income on these actual farms are all more 
closely related to the capital invested than 
the size of the farm. Thus, on the 30 farms 
with a capitalization of about $13,500, the 
average yearly receipts were about $25 an 
acre, while on the 28 farms with a capitali- 
zation of about $8,300, the average yearly 
receipts were about $16 an acre. Likewise 
on the high-priced farms the labor income 
was approximately $10 an acre, while on the 
lower priced ones it was about $7. 



*For further details see Hunt, "How to Choose a Farm," 
Chaps. X and XL 



^34 



CHAPTER XII 
GRAIN AND HAY FARMING 

AN important and primary factor in the 
production of all wealth is labor. 
Aside from the professional and domestic 
classes, the people of the world devote them- 
selves to three forms of work : ( i ) Changes 
in substance, or natural products; (2) 
changes in form, or mechanical products; 
(3) changes in place, or exchange of prod- 
ucts. The second of these forms of work 
gives rise to manufacturing; the third, to 
trade and commerce. Under the first sub- 
division two classes of natural products may 
be recognized; first, what, for want of a 
better name, may be called chemical 
products, such as ores, coal and salt, from 
which are derived mining and the metal- 
lurgical arts; and second, vital products, or, 
in other words, vegetation and animals. It 
is work applied to the production of vegeta- 
tion and animals that gives rise to agricul- 

^3S 



THE YOUNG FARMER 



ture. Agriculture is labor applied to the 
production of living things. 

KINDS OF AGRICULTURE 

The industries which deal with the pro- 
duction of living things may be divided, 
theoretically, largely on the basis of the 
character of the results, but to some extent 
upon the nature of the activities involved. 



Plant Produc- 
tion 
(Soil Cul- 
ture) 



Grain Farming — Cereals and "| 

grasses. I Agricul- 

Plantations — Cotton, sugar, to- [ ture 
bacco, coffee. J 

Truck Farming, Market Gar- ] 

dening— Vegetables. [■ Horticul- 

Fruit Growing — Fruits. I ^^^^ 

Forestry — Trees, shrubs. 



Animal Produc- 
tion 
(An. Husbandry) 

Mixed Husbandry 



Stock Raising — Work, meat, fats, hides. 

Stock Feeding — Meat, fats. 

Stock Breeding — Animals. 

Dairy Farming — Milk, butter and cheese. 

Sheep Husbandry — Wool raising. 

Poultry Raising — Eggs. 

Beekeeping — Honey. 



The manner in which this theoretical 
classification has worked out in actual prac- 
tice will be indicated in some measure by 
the inquiries of the United States Census 
136 



GRAIN AND HAY FARMING 

Bureau. The twelfth census has classified 
farms on the basis of their principal income. 
If 40% or more of the gross income of the 
farm was from dairy products, it was called 
a dairy farm; if from live stock, a live stock 
farm; if from cotton, a cotton farm. If no 
product constituted 40% of the gross 
receipts, the farm was classified as a mis- 
cellaneous or general farm. 

In 1900 there were 5,740,000 farms in 
the United States, which were, according to 
the rule just stated, classified as follows: 

FARMS CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PRINCIPAL 
SOURCE OF INCOME 



Total area, 

Kind of farm. acres. Number, 

Hay and grain 210,243,000 1,320,000 

Vegetables 10,157,000 156,000 

Fruits 6,150,000 82,000 

Live stock 335,009,000 1,565,000 

Dairy produce 43,284,000 358,000 

Tobacco 9,574,000 106,000 

Cotton 89,587,000 1,072,000 

Rice 1,088,000 6,000 

Sugar 2,689,000 7,000 

Flowers and plants 43,000 6,000 

Nursery products 166,000 2,000 

Miscellaneous 113,144,000 1,059,000 

Total 844,000,000 5,740,000 147 $656 





Gross 


Average 


income 


size 


per 


acres. 


farm. 


159 


$760 


65 


665 


75 


915 


227 


788 


120 


787 


90 


615 


84 


430 


190 


i>335 


363 


5,317 


7 


2,991 


82 


4,971 


107 


440 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Including miscellaneous or general 
farms, there are just a dozen kinds of farms 
mentioned. Of this number, nine kinds 
obtained at least 40% of their products, and 
probably much more, from vegetable rather 
than from animal forms. However, live 
stock and dairy farms constitute about one- 
third of the total number of farms, and 
almost one-half the farm acreage. There 
are four kinds of farms on which the pro- 
duction of grain and hay forms an impor- 
tant part of their activities; namely, the hay 
and grain farm, the live stock farm, the 
dairy farm, and general farm. These con- 
stitute, in the aggregate, 75^0 of the farms 
of the United States, and by virtue of their 
larger area, they occupy 85% of the total 
farm area. 

GRAIN AND HAY STATISTICS 

At the close of the nineteenth century less 
than one-half the area of the United States 
was owned in farms. Only one-half of this 
farm area was considered to be under culti- 
vation. The total area in cereals was one- 

138 



GRAIN AND HAY FARMING 

tenth the total land area, while 3% was 
devoted to hay and 2% to all other crops 
except pasture. 

Without going into details, it may be 
stated with reasonable assurance that: (i) 
During the last half of the last century, the 
production of cereals has increased much 
faster than the population. For example, 
in 1850, there were raised in the United 
States one ton of cereal grains per capita; 
by 1900 this amount had increased to one 
and one-half tons for each inhabitant. 

(2) Since the number of persons engaged 
in agriculture has decreased in proportion 
to population, the quantity of cereals pro- 
duced in proportion to persons engaged in 
agriculture has increased in still greater 
ratio. So far, therefore, as the amount of 
cereals is concerned, the farmer has been 
getting an increasingly larger return for his 
labor. 

(3) The quantity of cereals has increased 
in proportion to the arable land. This may 
be due to one or more of three causes: (a) 
greater average yield per acre; (b) greater 

139 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

proportion of cereals to other crops; or (c) 
to a change in the ratio of the different 
cereal crops. The following table, giving 
the average yield of grain, reduced to 
pounds per acre, shows not only how the 
substitution of one cereal for another might 
afifect the total production of cereal grains, 
but also suggests to the young farmer how 
he may modify the total product of his 
farm: 

Yield Lb. Lb. 

in bu. per bu. per acre 

Maize 24.2 56 1355 

Barley 23.7 48 1138 

Rye 15.0 56 840 

Oats 26.2 32 838 

Wheat 13.2 60 792 

Rice Paddy 746 

Buckwheat 14.0 48 672 

Yields will vary relatively in different 
regions and with different types of soil, and 
should be studied with reference to one's 
conditions. 

(4) The wheat and oat crops have in- 
creased about six and one-half times in 50 
years, the hay crop five and one-half times, 
while maize has increased four and one-half 
times. Cotton, the only other great staple 
140 



GRAIN AND HAY FARMING 

crop, has increased four times in the same 
period. The oat crop has increased the 
most rapidly of any since 1880. It is inter- 
esting, and may be significant, to note that, 
while the production of wheat and barley in 
Great Britain has decreased about one-half 
in thirty years, the production of oats has 
increased somewhat. 

(5) The greatest rate of increase in the 
production of cereals in the United States 
during the last half century has taken place 
since 1870. This increase is coincident with 
three other facts of the utmost importance: 

(a) The development of the central West, 
a treeless plain — prior to this period much 
of the farm land in the United States had 
been hewn out of the forest, tree by tree; 

(b) the consolidation of the steam railways 
into transcontinental lines; and (c) the in- 
troduction of the self-binding harvester. 
Formerly it took at least five men to do what 
is done today by one man in the harvesting 
of cereals. 



141 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

ADVANTAGES OF GRAIN FARMING 

(i) The cost of land excepted, the pro- 
duction of hay and grain requires a small 
outlay of money. During the past fifty 
years, many thousands of persons have been 
able to obtain farms of i6o acres at almost 
no cost. With a few hundred dollars in- 
vested in horses and tools with which to 
plow the prairie and sow the seed, these 
fortunate persons have oftentimes been able 
to pay the whole of their expenses, capital 
included, from the first crop. The renter 
who operates a hay and grain farm usually 
has but a small capital invested in his busi- 
ness. 

(2) The cereals bring a quick return. 
Wheat may be sown in September and sold 
in July; maize may be planted in May and 
sold in November; oats may be planted in 
April and sold in August. The short period 
between seed time and harvest makes the 
oat crop a favorite one among renters. On 
the other hand, it takes from three to seven 
years to produce a marketable horse. It 
142 



GRAIN AND HAY FARMING 

may take ten to fifteen years to begin to real- 
ize on an apple orchard. 

(3) The products are not easily perish- 
able, and hence can be held almost 
indefinitely. The development of the mag- 
nificent elevator system, based upon the 
principle that the cereals can be handled 
like water, greatly simplifies the holding 
and preservation of these staple products. 

(4) The products are in constant de- 
mand, and hence they always find a market. 

Agricultural commodities maybe divided 
into three classes, depending upon the area 
which controls the price of the commodity, 
as follows: (a) price units world-wide, as 
wheat, cotton, pork; (b) price units local to 
large districts — products too bulky to ship 
long distances — such as hay, potatoes and 
apples; (c) price units local to relatively 
small areas, such as strawberries and green 
vegetables. It is obvious that the larger the 
area which controls the price, the more 
constant will be the demand. 

143 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

OBJECTIONS TO GRAIN FARMING 

(i) It exhausts the soil. About two- 
thirds of the wheat of the United States is 
consumed outside the county in which it 
is raised. 

(2) It requires a large quantity of land 
to produce a competence. Land must be 
low in price, or the interest on the money 
invested in the land will consume the 
profits. The relation of crop to income is 
suggested by comparing the gross returns 
from an acre of potatoes or tobacco with 
an acre of maize. The average gross in- 
come during a decade was, from an acre of 
maize, $9.50; an acre of potatoes, $38; 
and from an acre of tobacco, $61.50. 

(3) Only such part of the land as is 
suited to tillage can be used. 

(4) The marketing of cereals requires 
the transportation of bulky products. Hay 
is handicapped much more seriously. The 
distance a product can be shipped depends 
somewhat on the price per pound received 
for it. If it costs one cent a pound to ship 

144 



GRAIN AND HAY FARMING 

maize to a grain market, obviously it cannot 
be transported without loss when it brings 
only 50 cents a bushel. On the other hand, 
two cents a pound may easily be paid for 
shipping butter which is worth 25 cents a 
pound. The transportation of $2,000 worth 
of maize to a railway station ten miles dis- 
tant is a laborious and expensive operation, 
but when this same maize is turned into 
beef or pork, it will transport itself to the 
station with comparatively little trouble. 
Notwithstanding the excellent transporta- 
tion facilities which the farmers of the 
United States enjoy, 80% of the maize is 
consumed in the county in which it is raised. 
Cereal production demands better trans- 
portation facilities than cotton farming, 
tobacco growing or the rearing of domestic 
animals. 

(5) Capital must lie idle much of the 
time. The self-binding harvester or the hay 
rake is only used a few weeks, or perhaps 
more often only a few days, each year. A. 
cream separator or a churn may be used 
every day in the year. In the first instance, 
145 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

there is not only interest on unemployed cap- 
ital, but the capital is actually deteriorating 
through nonuse. 

(6) The production of hay and grain 
does not give continuous employment. The 
slightest consideration of the following 
table must show that unless live stock is 
kept, there are considerable periods of the 
year in which very little labor is required, 
while at other times considerable work is 
necessary to prevent loss. 

TABLE SHOWING THE AVERAGE ACREAGE PER 
FARM OF PRINCIPAL CROPS. 

Wis- Vir- 
New York Ohio consin ginia 

Maize 3 13 9 " 

Wheat 2 12 3 6 

Oats 5 4 14 I 

Barley, rye or buckwheat 2 50 

Hay and forage 23 11 14 4 

Potatoes, beans or other 

vegetables 3 i 2 i 

Fruits 2201 

Miscellaneous crops 2102 

Pasture, wood or unim- 
proved land 58 45 70 93 

Total size of farm 100 89 117 119 

(7) Much depends upon natural forces. 
While there is opportunity for the use of 
knowledge and judgment in the production 

146 



GRAIN AND HAY FARMING 

of high-grade seeds and even of large yields, 
there is not the same scope for skill that 
there is in some other lines of agricultural 
enterprise. Skill means the capacity to do 
something difficult, and the more effort 
required to produce an object the more 
•value it has, provided its utility is unlim- 
ited. The farming which requires the most 
skill pays the best if one has the skill to 
apply to it. This is because those who do 
not have the requisite skill are usually un- 
successful. 



H7 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE COST OF FARMING OPERA- 
TIONS 

SEVERAL millions of the inhabitants of 
the United States, not to mention those 
of other countries, are engaged each year in 
the preparation of the soil for the cereal and 
forage crops and on the work of seeding and 
harvesting them. The welfare of one- 
third the population is directly and that of 
the other two-thirds, although less directly, 
is quite as surely dependent upon the effec- 
tiveness of this effort. If, for example, as 
sometimes happens, one-third the popula- 
tion receives on account of untoward sea- 
sonal conditions but four-fifths of the usual 
product, everyone must suffer on account of 
this unrewarded labor. Many, perhaps 
most, financial panics have their origin in 
crop failures aided, doubtless, by an im- 
proper financial system. 

Although widely and sometimes bitterly 
discussed, little is really known concerning 
the relation between the effort expended and 
148 



COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS 

the returns obtained in producing the great 
staple farm products; yet one of the most 
important and vital considerations in the 
organization of a farm enterprise is the in- 
come, both gross and net, which may be 
expected from the different crops contem- 
plated. Obviously the yield and price of 
the several crops will vary with the locality 
and with the season. It is, therefore, im- 
possible to predict for any year either what 
yield may be obtained or what price will be 
secured. If, however, a sufficient number 
of years are selected, an average may be 
found which will form a basis for calculat- 
ing the probable result for another series of 
years. The following table gives the yield 
and the average farm values per acre for 
five staple crops for five years, 1905- 1909 
inclusive, for the United States and for four 
widely separated states, viz., Pennsylvania. 
Iowa, Texas and Oregon. 

AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE, 1905-1909. 

Pennsylvania Iowa Texas Oregon 

Maize, bu. 36.6 33.4 21. i 27.3 

Wheat, bu. 17.8 15.5 9.6 20.6 

Oats, bu. 28.9 28.9 26.6 32.8 

Potatoes, bu. 84.4 85.8 67.0 119.0 

Hay, tons 1.39 1.56 1.32 2. 11 

149 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

AVERAGE FARM VALUE PER ACRE, 1905-1909. 

Pennsylvania Iowa Texas Oregon 

Maize $22.59 $13.80 $12.17 $19.58 

Wheat 16.61 12.42 9.11 16.10 

Oats 13-33 9-28 12.97 15.20 

Potatoes 55-87 44-75 65.15 71.18 

Hay 18.74 10.13 13-92 19.60 

Such figures as the above may be com- 
piled by anyone at any time for any year or 
series of years from the yearbooks of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. 
They form a fairly sound basis for calculat- 
ing the gross income which may be expected 
from the staple farm crops, particularly for 
the cereals, potatoes, hay, cotton and 
tobacco. Five questions, however, present 
themselves, which should, as far as possible, 
be settled before applying them to an 
individual problem. 

(i) How nearly do the conditions, espe- 
cially those of soil and climate, of the given 
location correspond to the averages of the 
state? The question can be settled only by 
a thorough study of soils and their crop 
adaptation. It is a matter requiring study, 
experience and judgment. 

(2) How much larger yields may be ex- 
pected on account of better methods 
150 



COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS 

employed? It is here that most mistakes are 
made in estimating possible farm profits. 
Necessarily, all statistical averages of pro- 
duction are much below those which an en- 
terprising farmer considers an average crop 
and habitually produces. Not more than 
50% increase upon these figures, however, 
should be anticipated by reason of the im- 
proved methods which one is going to 
employ. 

While the average yield of maize, even in 
the so-called corn states, is not far from 30 
bushels an acre, and while it is quite com- 
mon for good farmers to produce 60 to 75 
bushels of maize per acre, it would not be 
safe to assume a yield of more than 45 bush- 
els unless the conditions are more than 
ordinarily favorable. 

The application of the averages given on 
pages 149-150 to an individual farm enter- 
prise may be illustrated by calculating the 
possible results which might be obtained 
on 80 acres of arable land in Iowa and 
Pennsylvania with the four great soil pro- 
ducts of northern United States. 

151 



THE YOUNG FARMER 



, Iowa ,, f — Pennsylvania — ^ 

Acres Income Acres Income 

Maize 40 $552.00 15 $340.85 

Oats 20 185.60 15 200.25 

Wheat 5 62.10 15 249.25 

Hay 15 151-95 35 655.90 



Total 80 $951.65 80 $1,446.25 

If 50% is added for the increased yields 
which may be expected on account of the 
employment of better methods, the total 
yield from 80 acres of arable land would 
become for Iowa $1,428 and for Pennsyl- 
vania $2,169. This does not mean that 
farming is necessarily more profitable in 
Pennsylvania than in Iowa. Not only 
may the cost of cultivating an acre of 
arable land be greater in Pennsylvania, 
but usually a larger territory must be 
owned in order to obtain 80 acres 
of arable land. Eighty acres of these 
four crops is probably as often grown on a 
farm of 100 acres in Iowa as on one of 160 
acres in Pennsylvania. The total farm 
acreage in Iowa is, in round numbers, 35 
millions; in Pennsylvania, 19 millions. In 
Iowa about one-half the farm area is in the 
152 



COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS 

farm crops under consideration, while in 
Pennsylvania these four crops occupy only 
one-third the farm area. 

(3) Will there be a general increase or 
decrease in the price of crops during the 
coming years? 

The following table gives the average 
farm price for Missouri by five-year 
periods. 

THE AVERAGE DECEMBER FARM PRICE BY 

PREVIOUS DECADES COMPARED WITH 

AVERAGE OF FIVE YEARS, 1906-10. 

1866 1875 1886 1896 1906 

to to to to to 

187s 1885 1895 1905 1910 

cts. cts. cts. cts. cts. 

Maize, bu. 40 33 33 35 49 

Wheat, bu. 103 87 64 71 87 

Oats, bu. 30 27 26 27 39 

Potatoes, bu. 57 48 49 53 68 

Hay, ton 903 799 704 7°° 875 

An examination of the last column shows 
that the average price of these staple farm 
products has been considerably greater dur- 
ing five recent years than during the 
previous thirty years. Will this increase in 
price continue, or will there be a series of 
years of unusually low prices which will 
153 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

bring the average price of the decade down 
to that of the previous three decades? Few 
persons will care to venture an answer to 
this question, which is of the utmost im- 
portance to all farmers and especially to 
the beginner. 

(4) The figures employed are taken from 
the yearbook of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture and are the estimated 
farm price on December i of each year. 
Can the commodities be sold for the Decem- 
ber farm price? Will potatoes sold at the 
time of digging bring less than the 
December price? Will wheat or maize 
held until May bring a higher price? To 
what extent, by the judicious holding of 
products, can advance in price be obtained? 

(5) Will the products be sold for cash, 
or may they be turned into animal products 
at an increased profit? In some sections of 
the United States animals are reared 
primarily because of the increased profit 
due to manufacturing soil products into 
animal products; in other regions, however, 
they are kept primarily for the purpose of 

154 



COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS 

maintaining the fertility of the soil and only 
incidentally on account of the increased 
profits. 

COST OF PRODUCTION 

For a number of reasons it is difficult to 
determine the cost of growing farm crops. 
One reason deserves to be especially em- 
phasized. In any business enterprise it may 
be necessary to run at a loss, because to stop 
would entail a still greater loss. This is par- 
ticularly true in farming, where men are 
employed by the month in order that they 
may be had when needed. Since they are 
receiving pay, it is better that such men 
should be employed some days at farm 
operations which return only a portion of 
their wages rather than not to have them 
employed at all. Under such circum- 
stances, therefore, the cost of producing a 
given crop may be greater than is indicated 
by the time actually employed in its 
production. 

Many other factors also enter, as the 
average number of hours per day which it 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

is possible to work. This is greatly influ- 
enced by weather conditions. The Minne- 
sota station determined that the working 
day on about thirty farms in that state 
varied from seven and one-half to eight and 
one-half hours, with two to three and one- 
half hours on Sunday. The average length 
of the working day for horses varied from 
3.1 to 3.3 hours. 

/ The cost for labor of cultivating a given 
area of land will depend not only on the 
crop or crops to be raised, the climate, the 
topography and character of the soil, the 
size and shape of the fields and the system 
of cropping, but also upon the man's ability 
for organization. It is said that the 
European farmers, and even the farmers 
from eastern Canada, are several years in 
adjusting themselves to farming in western 
Canada. When the farmers from Iowa, 
Kansas, Nebraska or surrounding states 
move into western Canada with their three- 
horse teams and other suitable equipment, 
applying their thorough knowledge of 

156 



COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS 

prairie farming, they are at once successful. 
The man is thus an important factor. 

TIME REQUIRED FOR CULTURAL OPERATIONS 

The following table will be helpful as 
showing time required to perform certain 
operations, since it is a record of labor ac- 
tually employed on a field of i8 acres of 
easily tilled land in central Ohio. All labor 
was employed at prices named, board for 
man and food for horses being furnished in 
addition at the prices estimated. The owner 
of the land furnished the horse for the 
harvester. 

Plowing 7.5 days at $2 $15.00 

Harrowing 3 days at 2 6.00 

Planting 2 days at 2 4.00 

Cultivating (4 times) 7 days :t 2 14.00 

Cultivating with harvester 6 days at i 6.00 

Husking and cribbing by the job — 45-54 

Estimated cost of board zsVz days 7.95 

Estimated team maintenance 25J/2 days 4.90 

$103.39 

According to these figures the cost for 
labor of raising the crop and the cost of 
harvesting was almost exactly the same, each 
being a little less than $3 an acre. 

157 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

THE COST OF PRODUCING FARM CROPS 
The Minnesota station has determined 
the cost of growing the staple farm crops 
on 45 farms in different sections of the 
State. The total expense per acre for an 
average of six years is shown in the follow- 
ing table, not including land rental or cost 
of marketing. 

COST OF PRODUCING FARM CROPS IN MINNESOTA. 

Spring wheat, land fall plowed $5-54 

Oats, land fall plowed 5.80 

Barley, land spring plowed 6.89 

Maize, husked from standing stalks 9.41 

Hay, timothy and clover 3.68 

Potatoes, land not fertilized 23.36 

Potatoes, land fertilized 34'72 

Some years ago the writer made an esti- 
mate of the cost of producing maize, oats, 
wheat and clover hay in a four-course 
rotation on a tenant farm in central Penn- 
sylvania. The soil was a heavy clay and 
required plowing for each crop, except, of 
course, the hay crop, one acre a day being 
considered a good day's work. 

Counting the expense of man and team at 
$2 per day, the labor cost per acre was 
found to be $7 for maize, $5.10 for both 

158 



COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS 

wheat and oats, and $2.30 for hay, or an 
average of about $4.90 per acre for the four 
crops. The interest on the capital invested 
in operating this farm, exclusive of the land, 
was estimated at $1.45 per acre. 

INFLUENCE OF YIELD UPON THE COST OF 

PRODUCTION 
The Illinois station has prepared a set of 
estimates upon the cost of producing an 
acre of maize, showing variations in cost 
due to differences in yield. In these esti- 
mates, instead of making a charge for the 
actual cost of manure or fertilizer applied, 
an estimate is made of the value of the plant 
food removed. 

COST OF PRODUCING ONE ACRE OF MAIZE IN 
ILLINOIS AS MODIFIED BY YIELD. 

Yield Yield Yield Yield 

50 bu. 75 bu. 100 bu. 35 bu. 

Disking $0.40 $0.40 $0.40 $0.40 

Plowing i.oo i.oo i.oo i.oo 

Preparation .75 .75 .75 .75 

Planting .15 .15 .15 .15 

Seed __ .35 .35 .35 .35 

Cultivation i.oo i.oo i.oo i.oo 

Plant food i.oz 1.53 2.04 .71 

Husking 1.25 1.87 2.50 .88 

Marketing i.oo 1.50 2.00 .70 

Cost per acre $6.92 $8.55 $10.19 $5-94 

Cost per bushel .14 .11 .10 .17 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

The average yield per acre in Illinois for 
12 years preceding date of this estimate 
was 35 bushels per acre; the average price 
per bushel during the same period was 32 
cents. 

LABOR COST OF PRODUCING A BUSHEL OF 
GRAIN 

Not counting rent of land or interest on 
capital invested in equipment, nor deprecia- 
tion of soil fertility, it has been shown that 
under favorable conditions, the labor cost 
of growing and harvesting an acre of wheat 
or oats may be as low as $4.50, and that of 
maize as low as $5 per acre. Assuming the 
average labor cost of producing an acre of 
wheat or oats at $5.50 and of maize at $6 
per acre, and taking the average yields per 
acre for a series of years to be 13.8 for wheat, 
30.9 bushels for oats and 24.9 bushels for 
maize, the average labor cost per bushel 
will be: Wheat, 40 cents; oats, 17^ cents; 
and maize, 28 cents. 

The data given in this chapter are to be 
accepted as suggestive rather than as deter- 
160 



COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS 

minative. The chief purpose in presenting 
them is to place before the young farmer 
an appreciation of some of the problems 
involved in the production of the chief and 
basic agricultural commodities. The young 
farmer's success will be modified by the 
role which they occupy in his farming sys- 
tem and by his ability to adjust them to the 
economic conditions in which he may find 
himself placed. A thorough understanding 
of the principle underlying the data sub- 
mitted will go far toward enabling him to 
make this adjustment, although none of the 
illustrations given may have been obtained 
under conditions identical to his own. 



i6i 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PLACE OF INTENSIVE 
FARMING 

THE doctrine of the survival of the most 
fit applies equally to the field of biol- 
ogy and to the field of economics. The gen- 
eral introduction of vegetables and fruits 
into the human dietary has, by banishing the 
loathsome diseases of the Middle Ages, 
greatly increased human efficiency. It fol- 
lows that those peoples or nations who 
employ vegetables and fruits in abundance, 
other things being equal, will be most fit to 
survive and must outstrip others less fortu- 
nately situated. We may for this reason 
alone look forward to the increasing im- 
portance of vegetable growing and fruit 
raising; but there is a more obvious and 
perhaps more direct reason. There is in the 
production of vegetables, at least, a method 
of satisfying the dietetic needs of an increas- 
ing population. The employment of a part 
of the area now in cereals and forage crops 
162 



PLACE OF INTENSIVE FARMING 

for the production of potatoes, cabbages, 
legumes, roots and tomatoes is one of the 
most ready means of increasing the food 
supply. Whether such substitution will be 
advantageous to the human race depends, 
however, not so much upon the food returns 
from a given area of land as upon the 
products from a given amount or unit of 
labor. 

KINDS OF HORTICULTURE 

In that form of intensive agriculture to 
which is given the designation horticulture, 
there may be recognized several more or 
less distinct divisions, as fruit growing, 
market gardening, truck farming and 
floriculture. Each has its own special prob- 
lems, based upon conditions of culture and 
market. While, as in all classifications, 
there is more or less overlapping, the 
tendency is for them to become more and 
more distinct. The market gardener is the 
producer of vegetables for a local market, 
while the truck farmer produces similar 
products for a larger or wider distribution. 
163 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

The former grows a great variety of 
products, disposing of them in relatively 
small quantity, not infrequently directly to 
the consumer. The latter raises a few 
highly specialized crops which he sells in 
gross, usually through a commission mer- 
chant. Truck farming has developed since 
i860, in consequence of the growth of large 
cities, which require enormous supplies of 
vegetables of fairly uniform quality, and on 
account of the continuous demand for fresh 
vegetables as nearly as possible throughout 
the year. Watermelons and sweet potatoes 
can be raised in the southern states and laid 
down in New York City or Boston more 
cheaply than they can be raised in the 
suburbs of these cities, and, what is equally 
important, they will be of superior quality. 
The extension of railway facilities, the in- 
troduction of refrigerator cars and the 
building of cold storage plants has made it 
possible to grow in one climate products 
to be consumed in another. Cold storage 
has enabled the fruit growers of Cali- 
fornia to supply the eastern markets with 
164 



PLACE OF INTENSIVE FARMING 

peaches and other fresh fruit. Chicago, 
to give only one example, begins to receive 
strawberries, cabbages and tomatoes from 
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico early in 
the year and continues to receive these 
products, until finally they are being shipped 
late in the summer from the shores of Lake 
Superior. It is estimated that the change of 
locality from which these products come, 
travels northward at the rate of from 13 to 
15 miles a day. 

IMPORTANT FACTORS IN INTENSIVE FARMING 

In the neighborhood of large cities, nota- 
bly in the environs of Paris, market garden- 
ers often produce their vegetables in made 
soil. The local character of the soil under 
such conditions is a matter of comparative 
indifference, since a board floor would 
answer every requirement as a resting place 
for the artificial soil. The large expense 
in preparing and constantly renewing the 
seed bed is only economically possible, how- 
ever, where proximity to a large city out- 
weighs all other considerations. 

165 



THE YOUNG FARMER 



Ordinarily climatic and soil adaptation 
are prime factors in successful horticulture 
— much more than in any other branch of 
agriculture. Each fruit has a restricted 
climatic range, and in most cases the num- 
ber of soil types on which a given fruit can 
be made a commercial success is likewise 
limited. Thus, in general, apples and pears 
require heavier soils than peaches. Success 
in commercial apple growing requires even 
greater discrimination, since different varie- 
ties of apples demand different soil condi- 
tions. Thus Baldwins are grown the most 
successfully where a northern climate is 
modified by proximity to the Great Lakes. 
Rhode Island Greenings will succeed on 
soils too heavy for many other varieties. 
The York Imperial has not yet achieved a 
great commercial success save on one type of 
soil. Some varieties of apples are much 
more restricted in their adaptation than 
others. Thus, while the King is quite 
restricted, the Ben Davis has a fairly wide 
cultural adaptation. No one should plant 
an orchard until he has made a thorough 
i66 



PLACE OF INTENSIVE FARMING 

Study of his soil and climatic conditions and 
has received the highest possible expert 
assistance in choosing the varieties best 
adapted to his conditions. 

There is an increasing tendency to 
specialize in vegetable growing. The pro- 
duction of celery, onions, muskmelons, 
watermelons, cabbages, cauliflowers, toma- 
toes and sweet corn, to mention only some of 
the most striking examples, are becoming 
more and more localized. Even where 
vegetables and flowers are grown under 
glass, not only is each house devoted to a 
single species, but, notably in the case of 
roses, growers are restricting themselves 
more and more to a few varieties. This is 
due to the fact that it is impossible to give 
in one house, or even in one establishment, 
the special set of conditions required for the 
most economic development of each species 
or variety of plant, just as in the open air 
the natural conditions are best adapted to a 
limited number of horticultural products. 

So much being admitted, it follows that 
it is folly to attempt to grow plants under 
167 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

unfavorable climatic and soil conditions 
when competing in the same market with 
those possessing favorable ones. It is true, 
of course, that where one man fails another 
often succeeds, but this is no reason why a 
man should apply his talents under unfa- 
vorable circumstances. In fact, one of the 
important attributes of most successful men 
is their ability to recognize and apply their 
energies under conditions which will give 
them the most efifective return for a given 
effort. There is no virtue in unnecessary 
toil. Progress in any enterprise, as progress 
in the human race, can be accomplished 
only in reducing the amount of labor 
required to produce a desired result. 

All this is axiomatic. The purpose of 
emphasizing it here is that it is fundamental 
to the success of those who attempt to pro- 
duce horticultural products. The necessity 
for the emphasis lies in the fact that these 
factors are so often disregarded. They are 
of most vital importance to the man who 
attempts to raise tree fruits. A mistake in 
the planting of celery, cabbage, or onions 
i68 



PLACE OF INTENSIVE FARMING 

may be rectified the following season, but if 
a mistake is made in planting tree fruits, it 
may, as in the case of apples, require ten or 
even 20 years to discover the error. 

The growth in commercial orcharding is 
due in part to the need of special knowledge 
and facilities for combating fungous dis- 
eases and insect enemies and to the better 
markets which a large production of uni- 
form quality makes possible. While these 
are extremely important considerations, 
there is a more fundamental reason, which 
may in the long run exercise an even more 
potent influence. The location of the 
ordinary family orchard, so called, has been 
determined in almost every instance by the 
location of the farm buildings. There is no 
necessary relation between a good site for a 
farm dwelling and a suitable location for 
an orchard. It happens, therefore, that 
family orchards, taken as a whole, are not 
grown under as favorable conditions as 
are commercial orchards. This is a suffi- 
cient reason in itself, even if the other rea- 
sons above mentioned did not exist, why the 
169 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

commercial orchard must, in time, supplant 
these accidental plantings. 

ADVANTAGES OF HORTICULTURE 

The advantages of this intensive form of 
agriculture as compared with the more 
extensive forms discussed in Chapter XII 
may be stated as follows: 

(i) A large gross income per acre may 
be obtained. An investigation of truck 
farming made some years ago indicated a 
gross return per acre about 40 times as great 
as that obtained on an average from all 
forms of agriculture. 

(2) There is a large opportunity for the 
use of skill in raising and preparing 
products for market and an equal oppor- 
tunity for the exercise of judgment in choos- 
ing the best markets. 

DISADVANTAGES OF HORTICULTURE 

(i) It requires considerable capital, par- 
ticularly for machinery and labor. In the 
investigation in truck farming above men- 
tioned the capital per acre invested in land, 
170 



PLACE OF INTENSIVE FARMING 

buildings, implements and teams was eight 
times that in the more general forms of agri- 
culture. 

(2) The products are for the most part 
readily perishable, requiring special facili- 
ties if held for any length of time. 

(3) Growing out of above-mentioned 
fact, the market is easily overstocked at any 
given point, and hence prices often fluctuate 
widely. 

(4) The yield is also quite variable, this 
class of products being especially influenced 
by seasonal conditions and particularly sub- 
ject to insect attacks and fungous diseases. 
Since large capital is invested in labor, the 
horticulturist may be involved in financial 
ruin through causes which he is unable to 
control. 

(5) The labor question, in certain forms 
of horticulture more than in others, involves 
difficulties, among which is need of large 
quantities of cheap labor for short periods 
of time. 



171 



CHAPTER XV 

REASONS FOR ANIMAL 
HUSBANDRY 

ANIMAL products in the United States 
nearly equal in value those of all other 
farm products. Those soil supplies which 
constitute the food of domestic animals are 
not implied. Practically every farm in the 
United States keeps domestic animals, 
either for their labor or their products, and 
nearly every household in both city and 
country keeps one or more animals for com- 
panionship. The domestication of animals 
has been a prime factor in the civilization 
of the human race by furnishing man with 
motive force by which he has been able to 
increase his productive power; by giving 
him a larger, better and more regular food 
supply; and by furnishing the materials for 
clothing, making it possible for him to in- 
habit temperate and even arctic climates. 
Animals have not been less important in 
advancing the spiritual welfare of the 
172 



REASONS FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

human race, by inculcating habits of regu- 
larity and kindliness, which the care of 
domestic animals imposes. 

INCREASE IN ANIMAL PRODUCTION 

During the last half century animals have 
not increased in numbers as rapidly as have 
the inhabitants, but the value of animals has 
increased much more rapidly. While a part 
of this increase in value is due perhaps to a 
greater cost of production, a couple of illus- 
trations will suffice to show that part of this 
increase in value has been due to increase in 
the individual merit of the animals. In 
1850 sheep in this country produced 2.4 
pounds of wool per fleece; in 1910 they pro- 
duced 6.9 pounds per fleece. Thus, while in 
50 years sheep have not quite doubled in 
numbers, the production of wool has in- 
creased more than five times. This is a 
striking example of the value of improve- 
ment in breeding, because the improve- 
ment in wool production is due to the 
influence of heredity in far greater degree 
than to the effect of improved feeding. 

173 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Wool, like the hair on one's head, is not 
greatly influenced by the food supply, 
assuming it to be reasonably ample. Beef 
cattle offer another illustration of the way 
in which animal products have been 
increased without increasing the number of 
animals. Formerly beef cattle were ma- 
tured in their fourth and fifth years, or even 
their sixth year. They are now placed upon 
the market in their second and third years. 
If animals can be matured in their third 
instead of their fifth year, it is obvious that 
a much smaller number of animals must be 
kept upon the farm in order to provide an 
equal annual supply for slaughter. 

The increase in the size of our horses and 
the increased production of butter fat per 
cow which have occurred in the past half 
century are hardly less important factors in 
increasing the value of domestic animals 
and their products. 

THE FUTURE OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS 

One of the most striking features of recent 
progress in domestic animals is the large 
174 



REASONS FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

increase in the number of horses and the 
still greater increase in their value. There 
are those who have believed that the inven- 
tion of many beneficent forms of mechanical 
power would in time, if not in the very near 
future, supplant the use of animals as a 
motive power. The fact seems to be, how- 
ever, that they merely augment man's 
resources and increase his opportuni- 
ties without lessening his need for animal 
power. 

It appears reasonable to suppose that 
there will be witnessed in the United States 
a gradual shifting of live stock centers. 
During the past half century, the great cen- 
tral West has been noted for the production 
of live stock, particularly for beef, mutton 
and wool, as an incident of its pioneer de- 
velopment. Already the production of 
large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep has 
disappeared for the central West, and is 
now confined largely to Texas and the 
mountain states. The northeastern states are 
unrivaled in the production of grass, and 
have considerable areas less fitted for tillage 

175 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

than the prairie states. In time, therefore, 
the tendency will be for the regions best 
fitted to rear animals to increase their num- 
bers of breeding animals. On the other 
hand, those states which produce grain in 
relatively large abundance may give more 
attention to fattening animals and to the 
production of dairy products which can be 
shipped long distances. As time advances, 
the history of other countries will doubtless 
be repeated. A greater distinction between 
the breeding and rearing of animals, and 
their fattening and preparation for market 
will occur. 

ADVANTAGES OF KEEPING LIVE STOCK 

Since animals occupy a place in practi- 
cally all farm organizations, it is desirable 
to state briefly the advantages and dis- 
advantages which may accrue to any indi- 
vidual enterprise. The most striking 
advantages afifecting the farmer are: 

( I ) Animals make it possible to use land 
that would otherwise be wholly or partly 
unproductive. Hillsides and mountain 
176 



REASONS FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

slopes, soil too stony to cultivate, fields 
traversed by winding streams, and land par- 
tially covered with trees, are familiar exam- 
ples. As previously mentioned, only about 
one-half the farm area in this country is 
improved land, and only two-thirds, even of 
the improved land, is in cultivated crops. 
The other third of the improved land and 
a considerable portion of that half of the 
farm area known as unimproved land are 
utilized as pasture for domestic animals. 

(2) They make use of farm crops which 
would be entirely or partially wasted. 
Straw, the stalks of maize, clover and 
alfalfa hay and other leguminous forage 
crops would not have sufficient value to pay 
for raising if animals were not kept to con- 
vert them into useful products. In fact, the 
usefulness of a given animal may be judged 
by the economy with which he converts 
these otherwise useless products into food or 
other materials for the use of man. The 
most profound studies are being made to 
determine the conditions under which this 
takes place. 

177 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

(3) In thus acting as machines in manu- 
facturing raw materials into finished prod- 
ucts animals convert these coarse and 
bulky materials into those which are much 
more concentrated, thus making their trans- 
portation economically possible. A pound 
of beef has required food containing ten 
pounds of dry substance, and a pound of but- 
ter has required thirty pounds of dry mat- 
ter to produce it. 

These refined products may be shipped 
around the world, while the raw materials 
may not be profitably transported beyond 
the county in which they are raised. More- 
over, the farmer has the profit which comes 
from manufacturing the raw materials into 
refined products. 

(4) In the production of these finer 
products much of the essential materials of 
plant growth are left upon the farm. The 
experiments of Lawes and Gilbert show 
conclusively that in fattening animals more 
than nine pounds out of ten of the essential 
fertilizing ingredients of the food reappear 
in the solid and liquid excrements. Proth- 

178 



REASONS FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

ero says: "Farming in a circle, unlike logic, 
is a productive process." 

The fiscal policy of one of the great 
nations of the globe is based upon this idea. 
Everything possible is done by Germany to 
encourage the keeping of live stock, because 
the more live stock that is kept, the more 
productive will be the soil. The larger the 
crops raised the more people will be 
required to harvest them and the larger will 
be the population to recruit the army and 
navy. The Kaiser and the German scien- 
tist recognize that the fighting force of the 
Empire is related to the number of domestic 
animals reared. The meat supplies of the 
people are, therefore, taxed to bring about 
this end. 

(5) The rearing of live stock makes it 
possible to arrange a better rotation of crops. 
A five-year and, even better, a six-year rota- 
tion, is more effective than a four-year in 
maintaining the crop-producing power of 
the soil and enables the farmer to reduce his 
cost of production. It is possible to keep a 
larger proportion of the farm in grass and 
179 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Other forage crops, thus reducing the 
amount of land plowed annually and at the 
same time decreasing the exhaustion of the 
land, provided the forage crops are fed to 
live stock upon the farm. 

There is an old Flemish proverb which 
reads: 

"No grass, no cattle; 
No cattle, no manure; 
No manure, no crops." 

The point of this proverb is that good 
grass is the basis of good agriculture. In- 
vestigations have shown that one may go 
farther and say that one of the most ready 
means of increasing the crop-producing 
power of the soil is by adding fertilizers to 
grass land. The large number of plants per 
acre enables the plants to utilize the ferti- 
lizer to the highest degree, and plowing 
under the resulting dense sod is one of the 
most effective methods of enriching the soil. 

(6)/Animals require constant care, thus 

making possible a more constant use of labor 

and other capital. The wheat farmer of 

North Dakota sows his wheat in April and 

1 80 



REASONS FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

May and harvests it in July and August. 
He usually threshes it immediately, and is 
practically without employment for him- 
self, his teams or his men from September 
until April. On live stock farms the labor 
employed in the summer in the field is 
needed in the winter in paddocks and 
stables. 

(7) The management of live stock, in- 
cluding the rearing of poultry and the 
manipulation of dairy products, may be 
made to require a higher skill than the pro- 
duction of farm crops as ordinarily prac- 
ticed. The communities which have given 
the most attention to dairying and to the 
rearing and fattening of animals have gen- 
erally been the most prosperous. 

DISADVANTAGES OF KEEPING LIVE STOCK 

( I ) Keeping live stock increases the cap- 
ital required to operate a given area of land, 
especially where animals are kept in con- 
nection with the production of hay and 
grain. Not only must there be capital with 
which to purchase animals, but usually 
181 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

more is invested in buildings. In a self- 
contained farm — that is, one which raises 
sufficient food for the requirements of the 
live stock — ten dollars an acre may be con- 
sidered a moderate investment for animals. 
If, hov^ever, the plan is to raise only the 
coarse feed, while the necessary grain as 
well as other concentrates is largely pur- 
chased, a farm may easily carry from $25 
to $35 worth of live stock per acre. Lack 
of capital is one of the most potent influ- 
ences in preventing a larger production of 
animals and animal products. Cattle paper, 
or notes given to secure money for the pur- 
chase of fattening animals, is a common 
bank asset in the feeding districts of the cen- 
tral West. 

(2) The very perishable nature of ani- 
mals entails a great risk in the investment 
of capital in live stock. Not only the 
products of a single year, but the growth of 
a number of years, may be suddenly swept 
away by disease. This may include the 
crops of several years, thus destroying cap- 
ital invested in the production of the crops 
182 



REASONS FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

as well as the capital originally invested in 
the animals. Many a farmer has seen the 
gradual accumulations of years rapidly melt 
away in the presence of some contagious 
disease. Tuberculosis in cattle, cholera in 
hogs and liver rot in sheep are striking ex- 
amples of diseases that have caused the 
farmers of this country untold losses. 

(3) When an animal has been properly 
fattened he must be sold. If held for any 
great length of time, not only is there a con- 
stant outlay for food to maintain the animal, 
but the condition of the animal may actually 
deteriorate. Hence it is not possible to hold 
animals for a better market for a long 
period of time, as is possible in the case of 
the cereal grains. 

(4) Serious losses may occur where profit 
was expected through a rise in the price of 
foodstuffs. Scarcity in food supplies, due 
to an unfavorable season, often compels the 
stockman to sacrifice animals that he has 
been raising for two or three years. It is 
sometimes asserted that, although society 
suffers from short crops, the farmer is bene- 

■83 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

fited, because the increase in price is greater 
than the decrease in yield. One year, for 
example, the decrease in the production of 
maize was 30%, while the increase in price 
was 50%. If, therefore, the crop had been 
sold it would have brought more than the 
crop of the previous year. The farmers, 
however, require about 80% of the maize 
crop in the production of their live stock, 
so that when there was a decrease of 30% in 
the yield of maize, many had none to sell, 
while others had to purchase maize at 
increased prices or use other crops, such as 
oats, which they might otherwise have sold. 
Still others would be compelled to sell, at 
reduced prices, their partially fattened 
animals. There is a constant fluctuation in 
the price of animals and animal products, 
due to variation in yield and hence in price 
of food supplies. It requires continual 
vigilance on the part of the stockman to 
secure food supplies at such cost as will 
enable him to secure a profitable return 
from his animals. 



184 



CHAPTER XVI 
RETURNS FROM ANIMALS 

IN any well-considered plan of farm op- 
erations it is essential to have some basis 
for estimating the amount of food required 
to carry live stock through the year in order 
to know, on the one hand, what portion of 
the crops raised are available for sale and, 
on the other hand, what food supplies must 
be purchased. A requisite of any successful 
farm enterprise is a proper consideration of 
these market conditions. While domestic 
animals consume a variety of foods, and 
each class of animals has special food 
requirements, the basis of calculation of the 
needed supplies is fortunately not compli- 
cated. Twenty-five pounds of dry matter 
are required per day for each thousand 
pounds of live weight of horses, cattle and 
sheep, and for swine about 40 pounds for 
each thousand pounds of live weight. It 
may be more convenient to calculate the 
food requirement of swine on the basis of 
1 8s 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

increase in live weight, allowing five pounds 
of dry matter for each pound of increase. 
Some further details as to food requirements 
will be found in the paragraphs which 
follow. 

COST OF PRODUCING HOGS 

Pigs possess two characteristics which 
make them unique among domestic animals. 
They consume concentrated and easily 
digested foods only, and they produce noth- 
ing but meat, fat and bristles. Cattle fur- 
nish milk and hides; sheep, wool, hides and 
sometimes milk; fowls furnish eggs and 
feathers. On account of their limited range 
of usefulness and because of the high value 
of much of the food consumed, it would not 
be possible to rear swine economically were 
it not for their prolificacy and the fact that 
they are employed largely as scavengers. 
Many cattle are fattened without direct 
profit. The indirect profit comes from the 
sale of the pigs which have followed the cat- 
tle. It is customary to mature one hog with 
little or no additional food while fattening 
1 86 



RETURNS FROM ANIMALS 

two Steers. In many well-known ways, pigs 
consume products which would otherwise 
be wasted. This is especially true in the 
more densely settled sections of the world. 

On account of their prolificacy, the 
returns obtained for the amount of capital 
invested is greater than in the case 
of sheep, cattle or horses. Ten sows, 
worth $ioo to $150, are sufficient to 
produce 100 pigs; 75 to 80 ewes, worth 
from $300 to $500, are required to produce 
an equal number of lambs; no cows, worth 
$4,500 to $6,000, to produce 100 calves; and 
200 mares, worth from $20,000 to $30,000, 
to guarantee 100 foals. To put the matter 
in another way, the capital invested in 
swine may be reproduced in the offspring 
ten times in one year; the capital invested 
in horses not more than once in five years. 

In general, 500 pounds of maize will pro- 
duce 100 pounds of pork, which is equiva- 
lent to eleven pounds of poik from a bushel. 
Since hogs are so largely produced from 
maize, the price of maize and the price of 
pork are very closely related. For example,. 

187 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

if maize is worth fifty cents a bushel, the 
grain required to produce a pound of 
increase in live weight will cost about 5 
cents ; if 40 cents a bushel, 4 cents ; if 30 cents 
a bushel, 3 cents; and so on. 

COST OF PRODUCING SHEEP 

In the classic investigations by Lawes and 
Gilbert, food containing 100 pounds of dry 
matter produced a live-weight increase of 
nine pounds in steers and 1 1 pounds in 
sheep. At the Wisconsin station, sheep 
required less food than steers per pound of 
gain. During rapid fattening of sheep 500 
pounds of clover hay and 400 pounds of 
maize may produce 100 pounds of increase 
in live weight. While swine require a less 
weight of food for a pound of increase than 
sheep, on account of the more digestible 
character of the food eaten, yet the Wiscon- 
sin station found that the expense of produc- 
ing a pound of increase was less in sheep on 
account of the less expensive character of 
the food. 

188 



RETURNS FROM ANIMALS 

MEAT AND MILK PRODUCTION COMPARED 

A summary of the investigations of 
American experiment stations shows that 
lOO pounds of dry matter produced ten 
pounds of increase in live weight of steers. 
The same quantity of food when fed to 
milch cows produced 74 pounds of milk, 
plus one pound of increase in live weight. 
This 74 pounds of milk contained 3^ 
pounds of fat. In general, therefore, the 
food required to produce a pound of butter 
fat is about three times that required to 
produce a pound of increase in steers. 

COST OF STEER FEEDING 
The fattening of beef animals is largely 
conducted by farmers who make a specialty 
of it. This is particularly true in the so- 
called corn belt. Into this region are gath- 
ered the two and three-year-old and, more 
rarely, yearling steers, many of which have 
been reared in Texas or in the mountain 
states where the supply of maize is not suffi- 
ciently ample to fatten them. These are 
placed in paddocks with open sheds, where 
189 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

they are fed from 90 to 150 days, after which 
they are sent to market for slaughter. The 
food consists usually of maize fodder, maize 
stover, hay, maize (usually in the ear), a 
little bran, linseed or cottonseed oil meal. 
The ration per day during rapid fattening is 
about 20 pounds of dry matter per 1,000 
pounds of live weight, containing 16 pounds 
of digestible substance, of which 1.25 to 1.75 
is digestible protein. One hundred pounds 
of increase may be obtained under average 
conditions from 150 pounds stover, 325 
pounds of hay, 775 pounds of maize and 75 
pounds of cottonseed meal. 

Great variations will occur, however, 
depending upon the condition of the ani- 
mals at the beginning of the feeding period 
and the degree of fatness or finish to which 
the animals are brought before placing upon 
the market. In any case, the food consumed 
will cost more than the value of the increase. 
The only way that steers can be profitably 
fattened is by increasing the value per 
pound of the animal. Thus an 800-pound 
steer may be purchased at five cents per 
190 



RETURNS FROM ANIMALS 

pound, or $40. After feeding, say 150 days, 
he may weigh 1,100 pounds, when to bring 
a profitable return he should sell for 6 cents 
a pound, or $65. This is a gain of $25, eight 
of which came from the increase in value of 
the original 800 pounds. Usually steers 
cannot be fattened profitably unless there is 
an increase of at least three-quarters of a 
cent per pound in the value of the animals 
and then, as previously explained, only in 
connection with the hogs which follow 
them. 

COST OF PRODUCING MILK AND BUTTER FAT 

Well-selected and properly fed cows may 
produce 240 pounds of butter fat annually. 
The amount of fat obtained will depend 
upon the richness of the milk. Thus, 8,000 
pounds of 37o milk, 6,000 pounds of 4% 
milk, or a trifle less than 5,000 pounds of 
5% milk, will give this quantity of butter 
fat. These are customary returns from dif- 
ferent types of cows. 

If each cow in the herd is dry for six 
weeks each year the daily average of the 
191 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

COWS actually milked will be three-quarters 
of a pound of butter fat. There are herds 
which make an average of nine-tenths of a 
pound of butter fat per day, but to secure 
this result requires superior cattle, careful 
feeding and more than ordinary care. 

The standard ration for milch cows 
weighing from i,ooo to 1,200 pounds is 25 
pounds of dry matter, two-thirds of which 
is digestible. The ration should contain not 
less than two pounds of digestible protein. In 
ordinary practice, about ten pounds of the 
dry matter of the ration is obtained from 
maize silage, nine pounds from hay and 
about six pounds from grain or other con- 
centrates. In general, this is obtained by 
feeding 35 pounds of maize silage, ten 
pounds of hay and seven to eight pounds of 
concentrates. The silage may be estimated 
at one-tenth to one-eighth of a cent a pound, 
hay at from one-fourth to one-half cent and 
concentrates at from three-quarters to one 
and one-quarter cents per pound, varying, 
of course, with the different sections of the 
country. The amount of food needed will 
192 



RETURNS FROM ANIMALS 

vary somewhat with the size of the animals, 
but will depend much more largely upon 
the amount of milk and butter fat given. 
While maintaining substantially the general 
average just given for the whole herd, it is 
the practice of careful feeders to vary the 
amount of concentrates fed to each individ- 
ual in accordance with the amount of butter 
fat or milk given. 

COST OF MAINTAINING WORK HORSES 

At the Minnesota station, the total cost of 
feeding and maintaining a farm work horse 
for one year was estimated to be from $75 
to $90, of which about $20 was charged for 
interest and depreciation. On the basis of 
3.3 hours as the length of the working day, 
the cost per horse per hour was estimated to 
be 7^ cents. At the Ohio state university, it 
was found that four horses weighing about 
1,400 pounds were chosen to perform 2,185 
hours of labor during one year, while under 
like conditions four horses, weighing about 
200 pounds less, worked on an average but 
1,641 hours each. For each secular day, 

193 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

therefore, the former worked about 71^ 
hours, while the latter were employed but 
five and one-half hours. The cost of food 
was estimated at $54; cost of shoeing, 
repairs of harness and stable supplies at 
$6.50; and the cost of feeding, grooming 
and cleaning of stables at $23.50, or a total 
cost of $84 per year. Nothing was charged 
for interest or depreciation, but the expense 
of feeding and caring for three colts was 
included in the estimates given. The an- 
nual expense of maintaining a horse was 
practically the same in both states, but the 
cost per hour of labor performed was less 
because of the possibility of employing the 
horses at productive labor a larger portion 
of the time. Too much emphasis cannot be 
placed upon the need of planning a farm 
organization which will give continuous 
employment to horses as well as to men in 
order to realize the most profitable returns. 
An industrial system that makes it necessary 
to maintain work animals three days in 
order to secure one day's work falls far 
short of an ideal. 

194 



CHAPTER XVII 
FARM LABOR 

THE problem of farm labor demands 
thoughtful and frank consideration. 
Since work is an essential element in the pro- 
duction of all wealth, it follows that every 
industry has its labor problem. The adjust- 
ment of labor to the production of the 
various forms of wealth must ever constitute 
one of the most important problems in any 
organized society. It is often remarked 
that the labor problem is the chief difficulty 
in farming. In a certain sense this is true, 
since work is a primary element in the pro- 
duction of agricultural as well as all other 
wealth. It is not true, however, that the 
problem of labor is more difficult or more 
intricate than that of other industries. In 
fact, that problem is less delicate than in 
some other occupations, because farming is 
less industrialized. 

It is not possible to settle once for all the 
problem of labor for any occupation, since 

195 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

changing conditions will give rise to new 
questions or new phases of the old problem. 
Moreover, the problem of labor on the farm 
will grow more difficult as farming becomes 
more specialized and as the methods of pro- 
duction become more complex. 

However, the labor problem on the farm 
is different from that in the manufacturing 
industries or in trade and transportation. 
This chapter will not concern itself with 
an attempt to settle the farm labor problem, 
but will undertake to state the character of 
some of the differences between it and other 
forms of labor and to discuss some of the 
changes in recent years. 

A large proportion of farm work is done 
by the farm owner, or renter, and his family. 
There is not much opportunity to profit by 
the labor of other persons. In 1900 there 
were in the United States 1,812 industrial 
establishments each of which employed 
between 500 and 1,000 persons, while there 
were 675 establishments each of which had 
more than one thousand employees. In the 
same year there were 5,739,657 farms, which 
196 



FARM LABOR 

employed in the aggregate 4.4 millions of 
people, not including the owners of the 
farms. Moreover, over one-half of the 4.4 
million persons thus employed were mem- 
bers of the families of the farmer. In other 
words, aside from members of the family, 
there was less than one employee to every 
two farmers. Since a considerable number 
of farmers employ more than one person, 
it follows that the majority of farmers em- 
ploy no help other than members of the 
family. 

In another particular farm labor differs 
from that of other forms of labor even more 
widely. There are sociologic as well as 
economic questions involved. Baldly stated, 
custom permits, and necessity often requires, 
the laborer to eat at the same table with the 
farm owner and in other particulars he 
mingles intimately with the farmer's family. 
In all its bearings, this is a very important 
fact. It constitutes one of the greatest diffi- 
culties in the problem of securing suitable 
farm help. Industrial corporations employ 
as common laborers largely Italians, Hun- 
197 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

garians, Poles and negroes. The English, 
the Irish, the German, the Swede and the 
Norwegian have been readily received and 
assimilated in the American farming com- 
munities. The peoples of Eastern and 
Southern Europe are often criticized be- 
cause they do not become farm laborers. 
That they do not is in large part due to the 
fact that the farm hand is usually a member 
of the farmer's family. Thus the supply of 
common labor which is today used by the 
rest of the industrial world is not open to the 
farmer. 

Farming differs from some other occu- 
pations in that it does not ordinarily offer 
the laborer much opportunity for advance- 
ment. The fireman on a railway train be- 
comes the engineer; the brakeman becomes 
a conductor. There are opportunities in 
many establishments for the advancement of 
the industrious and clever. A man may 
enter their service with the hope of being 
able to marry and support a family. On 
the other hand, all our land laws are based 
upon the idea that each farm should be of 
198 



FARM LABOR 

sufficient size to support only one family. 
Where it does support two families, the 
relation is usually that of landlord and ten- 
ant. The farm laborer, therefore, must 
look upon his employment as more or less 
temporary. The young man who intends 
to become a farmer will find employment 
upon the farm a desirable if not essential 
preparation for his future occupation. 

The introduction of farm machinery has 
had the effect of increasing the price of 
farm labor while at the same time decreas- 
ing the amount of labor needed. The rea- 
son is that the introduction, not alone of 
farm machinery, but all forms of machinery, 
has made man's labor much more efficient 
than formerly. Farm wages have doubled 
since the introduction of horse-drawn 
machinery. The labor income in the differ- 
ent sections of the United States is influ- 
enced by the extent and efficiency with 
which machinery is used. The relation of 
labor income to the use of horse power is 
shown by the following table taken from a 
recent census: 

199 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

INFLUENCE OF FARM MACHINERY AS SHOWN BY 

THE RELATION OF LABOR INCOxME 

TO HORSES AND MULES. 

Number of horses 

and mules to 

Divisions of the 1,000 persons 

United States Labor Income in agriculture 

North Atlantic $299 1,655 

South Atlantic 163 808 

North Central 402 3,036 

South Central 211 1,603 

Western 510 5,476 

United States $288 2,105 

In one of the states of the South Atlantic 
division the average price of farm labor, 
without board, was $12 per month, while in 
one of the states of the western division the 
price on the same date was $31. Why? 
Because in the latter case a man's labor was 
more productive. In the South Atlantic 
division, in producing the chief crops cotton 
and maize, a man uses one mule in prepar- 
ing and cultivating the soil. In the western 
division plowing and harrowing with six- 
horse teams is common and nine-horse teams 
are not unusual. The cotton picker in one 
day will be able to gather not to exceed 300 
pounds of seed cotton, worth not more than 
200 



FARM LABOR 

$15. The western wheat will be harvested 
by a machine drawn by 28 horses. In the 
same time four men with this outfit will cut 
and thresh 700 bushels of wheat, worth $500. 
When the threshing machine was first 
introduced in Ohio, it was stubbornly 
opposed by all farm laborers. "They 
claimed it," says Bateman, "as a right to 
thresh with a flail, and regarded the intro- 
duction of machinery to effect the same 
object in a few days which would require 
their individual exertion during the whole 
winter, not only as an invasion of a time- 
honored custom, but as absolutely depriving 
them of the means of obtaining an honest 
livelihood. At a later date, when a reaper 
had been introduced into a field of ripe 
wheat as a matter of experiment only, every 
one of the harvest hands deliberately 
marched out of the field and told the pro- 
prietor that he might secure his crop as best 
he could, that the threshing machine had 
deprived them of their regular winter work 
twenty years ago and now the reaper would 
deprive them of the pittance they otherwise 
201 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

could earn during harvest." How short- 
sighted they were ! No class gained so much 
from the introduction of labor-saving 
machinery as did those who did the labor. 
The reason for the increase in well-being, 
the reason society enjoys luxuries and com- 
forts beyond the fondest dreams of former 
generations, is due to the fact that the labor 
of each man has been made so much more 
effective through these labor-saving devices. 
The humblest citizen shares in this improve- 
ment. Not all share alike and not all share 
equitably, but each generation sees its mem- 
bers sharing more equitably than those of 
any generation which preceded it. 

The proposition is an extremely simple 
one. If a man produces just enough food 
for himself and family, he will have nothing 
for clothing, shelter, or education. If, 
however, a man produces four times as 
much food as he and his family consume, he 
may exchange one-fourth for shelter, one- 
fourth for clothing and have remaining a 
fourth for education, and recreation or sav- 
ings. This is only another way of saying 
202 



FARM LABOR 

that the greater the amount of any useful 
commodity produced by a single day's labor 
the larger will be the laborer's income or 
wages. 

Although the increase in intensive agri- 
culture and the diversification in farming 
tend to increase the need of farm laborers, 
the introduction of farm machinery has 
much more than offset this demand. The 
tendency of farm laborers to become farm 
tenants; or, to state it in other words, the 
tendency of landowners to rent their land 
rather than to continue to operate it them- 
selves, is not without its influence upon the 
labor problem. 

The invention and introduction of farm 
machinery has accentuated the difficulty of 
keeping the farm laborer continuously em- 
ployed. The decrease in the demand for 
farm labor and the increasing lack of uni- 
formity in the amount required have caused 
a gradual depletion of the smaller villages 
and hamlets which were a source of labor 
supply during harvest and other busy sea- 
sons. 

203 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

' The problem of keeping labor continu- 
ously employed has always been a difficult 
one on the farm, because of the change of 
seasons and because of the variations in the 
weather from day to day. There is a wide 
difference between those industries which 
are carried on within doors and farming, 
which is subject to the caprices of the 
weather. Natural causes produce tremen- 
dous variations in the return for labor. For 
example, in 1901 there were produced in 
the aggregate 3,006 million bushels of 
wheat, maize and oats, while in 1902 there 
were harvested 4,180 million bushels. Here 
is an increase of over a thousand million 
bushels. The same farmers tilled the same 
soil in the same way as far as natural causes 
would allow, and yet there was a difference 
in result amounting to 39 per cent. A varia- 
tion of one hundred million bushels of 
wheat from year to year, due to climatic 
conditions solely, is not at all unusual. 

The manufacturer also has far greater 
control of his labor. When it rains, he has 
a roof over his workmen, and hence the 
204 



FARM LABOR 

work is not interrupted. When it grows 
dark, he turns on the light and the work 
continues. If it gets cold, he lights the fire 
and still the work continues comfortably. 
It is not so in agriculture. There is a great 
variation in the working efficiency of men 
employed in farming. In a certain locality 
there were twenty-one days of rain in the 
thirty-one days of May. The next year 
between June 5 and September 5 in the same 
locality there was not half an inch of 
rainfall at any one time. 

What is true of labor is also true of 
machinery. The farmer must purchase 
machinery which he can use only a few days 
in the year, while the manufacturer, for the 
most part, employs his machinery continu- 
ously, sometimes day and night. While 
natural causes prevent the farmer from 
using the same business methods, or from 
being able to calculate his profits with the 
same precision as is possible by those fol- 
lowing manufacturing and mercantile pur- 
suits, it is nevertheless important that 
farming should be planned to avoid, as far 
205 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

as possible, the influence of natural causes. 
Certain kinds of farming are less dependent 
upon natural causes than others. Wisdom 
and foresight can do much to avoid, in all 
farming, untoward influences. The clever 
farmer seldom complains about the weather. 
Farm machinery has made unnecessary, 
and hence unprofitable, some of the labor at 
which children were formerly employed. 
In the not distant past many, perhaps most 
farmers, owed their prosperity in large 
measure to the labor of their children. A 
large family, especially of boys, was a valua- 
ble asset. Even a generation ago conditions 
were not far different, and two generations 
ago were quite the same as those described 
by Homer: 

"Another field rose high with waving grain: 

With bended sickles stand the reaper train: 

Here, stretch'd in ranks, the level'd swaths are found ; 

Sheaves heaped on sheaves here thicken up the ground. 

With sweeping stroke the mowers strow the lands ; 

The gath'rers follow, and collect in bands : 

And last the children, in whose arms are borne 

(Too short to gripe them) the brown sheaves of corn. 

206 



FARM LABOR 

The rustic monarch of the field descries, 
With silent glee, the heaps around him rise. 
A ready banquet on the turf is laid 
Beneath an ample oak's expanded shade. 
The victim ox the sturdy youth prepare: 
The reaper's due repast, the women's care." 

There is also another reason why the age 
of the employed has been raised. It is 
due to the growth of higher education. 
Where formerly the farmer's children be- 
tween the ages of twelve and twenty-one did 
most of the farm work, now many of them 
at the same age are attending schools and 
colleges. The sons of a man, who a genera- 
tion ago found no opportunity to get beyond 
the district school, graduate from high 
school and college, and thus spend most of 
their time in study until they are past 
twenty-one years of age. 

Labor unions have doubtless caused a 
scarcity of farm labor by increasing the pro- 
portion of the created wealth which goes 
to the man who labors without capital. 
When a man can obtain fifty cents an hour 
for laying brick, he does not wish to work 
207 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

in the hay field at twenty cents an hour, even 
though the difference in the cost of living 
may in great measure offset the difference in 
wages. 

There is a growing tendency to perform 
work by what is called contract labor. Thus 
a person may agree to weed and hoe sugar 
beets at a certain rate per acre. He, in turn, 
employs a force of cheap laborers which he 
sends from farm to farm to do this work. 
The harvesting of fruits and garden crops is 
not infrequently done in some such manner. 
In one instance a contractor of laborers of 
foreign birth has been furnishing them for 
all kinds of farm work. He keeps 20 to 40 
of these laborers on a small farm, furnish- 
ing them a dwelling and selling them food 
supplies. Farmers telephone for help when 
in need. The contractor receives $1.65 for 
a day's work and pays the laborer $1.50. 

It appears from the preceding considera- 
tions that there are open to every farmer at 
least three methods of increasing the effi- 
ciency of farm labor. He may make every 
day's labor more efficient by use of labor- 
208 



FARM LABOR 

saving machinery and the employment of 
it in the most efficient manner; as, for exam- 
ple, using three 1,500-pound horses to his 
farm machinery instead of a pair of 1,200- 
pound horses. He may modify the char- 
acter of his farming in order that profitable 
labor will be more continuous. He may 
modify the method of employing labor; as, 
for example, by introducing the system of 
contracting labor for specific purposes 
where feasible. 

Increase in the price of farm labor is not 
an evil. It is an indication that labor ap- 
plied to agriculture is becoming more pro- 
ductive and hence more profitable. Since 
more than one-half the labor of the farm is 
done by the owner and his family, the 
farmer is benefited through the rise in price 
of farm wages. The more that labor can 
be made to earn upon the farm, the better it 
will be not only for the farm owner but for 
society in general. 



209 



CHAPTER XVIII 
SHIPPING 

THE means of facile transportation and 
the machinery of trade are the need and 
the development of a complex civilization. 
The importance of these useful adjuncts of 
everyday life is indicated by the fact that 
about one-fourth of all the people engaged 
in gainful occupations in civilized com- 
munities are employed in them. Neverthe- 
less the expense of transportation and trade 
constitutes a tax upon the consumer which 
it is the aim of modern methods to reduce to 
the lowest limits. Recent investigations 
indicate that for every thirteen dollars the 
consumer expends for farm products the 
producers receive six dollars. In some 
directions most remarkable results have 
been accomplished. A recent quotation on 
wheat per bushel was as follows: Chicago, 
$0.93; Antwerp, $1.04; London, $1.06; 
Hamburg, $1.07. Eleven to 14 cents per 
bushel represents the cost of haul and com- 
210 



SHIPPING 

missions between Chicago and the Euro- 
pean cities named. Methods of handling 
have been so perfected that from the time 
the western farmer places the bundle of 
wheat at the mouth of the threshing 
machine the grain literally flows through 
the channels of trade until it reaches the 
flour sack. On an average the English 
miller pays about 20 cents a bushel more for 
wheat than the American farmer receives 
for it. 

The cost of distributing many other farm 
products is greater, although the range of 
distribution is much less. The cost of haul- 
age and selling potatoes is from 25 to 50% 
of the retail price, while with hay it is still 
higher. The cost of distributing all forms 
of truck and market garden produce is high 
and often wasteful. Many attempts have 
been made to eliminate a part of this cost 
as well as to better the conditions of the 
supplies when they reach the consumer. 
While many individuals have been quite 
successful in dealing directly with the con- 
sumer, little has thus far been accomplished 
211 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

that affects general trade conditions. Great 
improvements have been made in methods 
of transportation and methods of preserva- 
tion. Cold storage and canned goods have 
been the direction in which progress has 
been notable. 

WASTEFUL METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION 

Owing to customs and traditions there is 
frequently a great waste of effort in some of 
the methods of trade. The meat trade of 
France is an excellent illustration. Certain 
sections of France make a specialty of rear- 
ing cattle. At a suitable age these animals 
are purchased by other farmers who fatten 
them. Many of the small towns maintain 
market places at which fairs are held to 
facilitate these negotiations. Frequently 
there is a shipment from one region to an- 
other, which is conducted by a middleman. 
When fattened the steers are collected by a 
stock buyer, who may ship them to La Vil- 
lette, the live stock market of Paris. Here 
they are placed on sale through commission 
men. There are the usual charges for 

212 



SHIPPING 

yardage and food. After being sold the 
animals are driven to the slaughterhouses. 
The carcasses are then taken by wagon to 
the great market of Paris located near the 
center of the city. Here the retail vender of 
meats comes, makes his purchase, reloads 
the meat, which may have been unloaded 
less than an hour before, carries it to his 
shop, where the consumer seeks it. The 
number of people concerned and the amount 
of hand labor have been excessive. 

Nor is the American system without its 
faults. The Iowa or Illinois farmer fattens 
cattle that may have been reared in Mon- 
tana or Texas. After the stock buyer, the 
commission man and the stock yard com- 
pany have each taken his toll, the packer 
ships the carcasses back to the very region 
where the animals were fattened, when the 
stockman may purchase it of the local 
vender of meats. The facilities and perfec- 
tion with which these many transactions are 
accomplished is one of the wonderful sights 
of our country. Nevertheless the producer 
of meat products may well consider whether 
213 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

some more economical system of distribu- 
tion may not be devised. 

SHIPMENTS: SOURCES OF INFORMATION 

All railroad rates are now carefully 
supervised by the federal government and 
are open to the inspection of the public. 
Such information as is ordinarily needed 
may be obtained from the local station 
agent, v/ho is always glad to be of service to 
patrons of his road. If information of a 
special character is required, it may be 
obtained by addressing the division freight 
agent of the railroad in the region under 
consideration. The name of this officer is 
to be found in the circulars and upon the 
posters of the railroad. 

In addition to the freight facilities 
offered by any individual railroad, there are 
what are known as fast freight lines. These 
agencies enable through and prompt ship- 
ment from inland points in our own coun- 
try to inland points in another. An individ- 
ual railroad may operate in connection with 
;several such agencies. A certain railroad, 
214 



SHIPPING 

for example, is combined with nine fast 
freight lines. Freight agents of local roads 
in the principal towns usually represent the 
fast freight lines and are prepared to tran- 
sact business. 

In seaport cities there are firms styling 
themselves foreign freight contractors, out- 
ward freight agents, steamship agents, or 
ship brokers. These firms are prepared to 
quote prices on shipments to any part of the 
world on either regular or tramp ships. 
They will give freely to intending shippers 
full information concerning methods and 
conditions of shipment. There is nothing 
mysterious about the business of shipping 
farm products. The necessary details may 
be acquired by inquiry in the channels indi- 
cated and by a little study of the data, which 
will be cheerfully furnished. 

RAILROAD RATES 

A great many factors are involved in 
determining the rate which is charged for 
transporting different products. In a cer- 
tain sense it is doubtless true that the rate 

215 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

charged is based upon what the traffic will 
bear. The purpose here, however, is to state 
some of the customs which exist rather than 
to discuss the philosophy or justice of them. 

The rate may vary with the value of the 
product, without any regard to the cost of 
the haul. Suppose the cost of shipping a 
ten-gallon can of fresh milk between two 
points to be 32 cents, the cost of shipping a 
similar can of cream may be 50 cents. The 
cost of shipping a carload of hay is less than 
a carload of wheat. 

In some instances, zones or belts have 
been recognized, the rate from all towns 
within each zone being the same for a given 
product. Certain railroads centering in 
New York recognize four zones for the 
shipment of milk and cream, as follows: 

Zone A — First 40 miles. 

Zone B — Between 40 and 100 miles. 

Zone C — Between 100 and 190 miles. 

Zone D — Beyond 190 miles. 

It will be noticed that the size of these 
zones varies and may be the subject of ad- 
justment between railroads and shippers. 
216 



SHIPPING 

While less understood by the public, rail- 
roads recognize zones or, more properly, 
groups of towns in making rates to them 
instead of from them, as in the instance 
above mentioned. It is possible to change 
the rate on a product to a given town by 
classifying it in another group. The rate 
on bran and other stock foods from central 
western points to certain towns in New York 
state has been the same as that charged to 
Boston, Mass., while other towns in New 
York not far removed have taken a lower 
rate. 

Differential rates are recognized to be 
legitimate. Railroads are allowed to 
charge a less rate for wheat intended for 
export than that intended for local consump- 
tion. There has sometimes been a wide dif- 
ference between the freight rate on wheat 
between Kansas City and Galveston, Texas, 
depending upon whether the wheat was to 
be exported or intended for domestic use. 

In certain sections and for certain prod- 
ucts the railroad rate varies with the season, 
because of difference in competition. The 
217 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

railroad rate between Chicago and New 
York on grain is higher while the naviga- 
tion of the Great Lakes is suspended. As an 
illustration of the cheapness of transporta- 
tion by water, it is stated that sometimes it 
is cheaper to ship wheat from Chicago to 
Buffalo by boat than to store it in a grain 
elevator for an equal period of time. 

Products may sometimes be sent by bag- 
gage to greater advantage than by express, 
special arrangements for which are gener- 
ally required. 

FACILITIES FOR FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION 

American railway facilities are, perhaps, 
unrivaled among the nations of the world, 
but the United States is still behind other 
nations in the matter of means of local 
transportation, in which good roads is only 
a part of the problem. In France, the so- 
called messagers are a common feature of 
local traffic. Thus in the Department of 
Touraine there are 246 towns each having 
from one to four messagers, who with their 
great two-wheel carts, each with single draft 
218 



SHIPPING 

horse, make one or two trips to Tours each 
week. The messagers carry freight both 
ways precisely in the same capacity as rail- 
roads do. While the railroads are fairly 
abundant these local agencies continue to 
thrive because delivery can be made directly 
tx) the consignee and delivery at the exact 
time and place is more certain. The 
enormous loads conveyed in these two-wheel 
carts by one horse is an element in this sys- 
tem to which the good roads of France now 
contribute. In 1799, France had con- 
structed 25,000 miles of roadway. Since 
that time, over 300,000 miles of roadway 
have been completed and about 30,000 
miles of railway have been constructed 
— ten miles of roadway for each mile of 
steam railway. The good roads of France 
are of comparatively recent origin, con- 
tributing materially to the improvement in 
well-being which has taken place during the 
same period. 



219 



CHAPTER XIX 
MARKETING 

WITHOUT stopping to inquire the 
reasons, it may be recalled that there 
are two rather distinct forms of trade, 
wholesale and retail. The wholesale 
trade is conducted by three classes 
of persons: dealers or merchants, com- 
mission men, and brokers. The dealer 
is one who buys the goods outright and takes 
his own risk on making a favorable sale to 
the retailer. The commission man is one 
who receives the goods, sells them at such 
price as he may be able to obtain and remits 
to the seller the amount obtained less ex- 
penses and his commission. The broker is 
a man who effects a sale without coming in 
contact in any way with the materials sold. 
A cheese broker, for example, receives in- 
struction from different factories to sell for 
them a certain quantity of cheese of a given 
kind and quality each week or month as the 
case may be. At the same time he receives 
220 



MARKETING 

from grocery stores which retail cheese 
orders for various amounts, kinds and qual- 
ity of cheeses. With this information at 
hand, he directs the various factories intrust- 
ing their business to him to ship the kind, 
quantity, and quality of cheese required by 
his several customers. For such service he 
receives a brokerage, which is less than that 
charged by a commission man because he is 
not required to handle or store the material. 
Since the different farm products are pur- 
chased by different classes of retailers, and 
since their handling and sale require differ- 
ent facilities and special knowledge, there 
have arisen in the great centers of trade 
different kinds of markets, each having its 
particular facilities for the handling, care 
and sale, and each conducted by commission 
men or brokers with a special knowledge 
of the trade. Furthermore, certain cities 
have become, on account of their favorable 
position — to mention but one reason — head- 
quarters for certain products or groups of 
products. Thus Petersburg, Virginia, has 
the principal wholesale market for peanuts. 

221 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Elgin, Illinois, has been noted for its butter 
market. St. Louis is the leading mart for 
mules. 

In a general way, the following five more 
or less distinct and important classes of 
markets for farm products may be recog- 
nized: Grain, Live Stock, Produce, Cotton 
and Tobacco. 

METHODS OF TRADE 

The brokers or commission men doing 
business in any one of these markets usually 
form an association called a board of trade, 
chamber of commerce or similar title for 
the purpose of assisting "each other in the 
pursuit of common ends." The result has 
been uniformity of methods and charges; 
but above all in importance, perhaps, has 
been the definition of classes and grades of 
the products placed on sale. The tendency 
is for the associations in the different cities 
to adopt uniform rules for the grading of 
products, so that No. 2 red winter wheat 
may mean the same thing in Toledo and 
New York; that the quotation on prime 
222 



MARKETING 

beef may refer to the same quality of cattle 
in Pittsburgh as it does in Chicago; and that 
No. I Timothy hay in Baltimore and St. 
Louis may be alike. While the tendency is 
towards uniformity, much yet remains to be 
accomplished. The shipper must be on his 
guard lest he suffer loss through the varia- 
tions in the classification or variations in 
their interpretations on the different 
markets. 

There has grown up around these markets 
some agency which stands as a disinterested 
party between seller and buyer impartially 
determining the weight and in some cases 
the quality of the object under negotiation. 
The State of Illinois employs agents who in- 
spect all cars of grain consigned to the 
Chicago market. These inspectors deter- 
mine the kind, grade and weight of the 
grain in each car. The car is then delivered 
under seal to the purchaser. If either seller 
or buyer is dissatisfied with the inspector's 
decision he may, by complying with certain 
regulations, have this decision reviewed by 
a higher authority. The decision of this 
223 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

higher authority is final and must be 
accepted by both parties. Brokers selling 
grain in carload lots ship the cars subject to 
the weight and grade as determined by the 
inspector at Chicago. Grain of a specific 
grade may thus be bought in Chicago or 
other great grain markets with almost per- 
fect security as to weight and quality by 
persons living in any part of this or any 
other country. At Elgin the quality of but- 
ter is determined by a committee appointed 
by the Board of Trade from its own mem- 
bers. In the live stock markets, the stock 
yards company, in addition to furnishing 
yards, shelter, food and water, acts as agent 
between seller and buyer in determining the 
weight of the animals. The purchaser or 
his agent must determine for himself the 
quality of the animals he buys. 

GRAIN MARKETS 

The Chicago and St. Paul Boards of 
Trade and the New York Produce Ex- 
change are the three great agencies for 
dealing in grain in the United States. 
224 



MARKETING 

Buffalo, Duluth, Baltimore and Philadel- 
phia are also important markets. Adjuncts 
to these markets are the great terminal ele- 
vators capable of holding almost indefi- 
nitely enormous quantities of wheat and 
other grain. On the Pacific Coast all the 
wheat is handled in the bags, as is the cus- 
tom in the other markets of the world. 
Canada and the United States alone have 
recognized the principle that wheat and 
other grains will run like water, which has 
been a prime factor in their competition 
with other nations. 

Country elevators charge two cents a 
bushel for storage during the first 15 days 
and Yz cent for each additional 15 days. The 
charge for storage at terminal elevators for 
the first 15 days is % cent. The farmer 
may thus store his wheat in an elevator in 
place of his farm if he chooses so to do, 
although the wheat he thus puts in storage 
may have been made into flour and con- 
sumed before he sells it. This may be 
looked upon as a sort of intermediary step 
225 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

between storing wheat in one's own granary 
and dealing in futures. 

The country shipper pays ^ cent a bushel 
commission for the sale of wheat. There is 
also a charge for inspection and insurance, 
and, in case there is an advance payment, 
for interest. After five days there are stor- 
age charges. This has given rise to the ex- 
pression, gilt edge, regular and short re- 
ceipts, depending upon the length of time 
there remains before storage charges must 
be paid. Every market has a grade known 
as contract grade, meaning the quality that 
must be furnished when wheat or other 
grain is sold without specifying the grade. 
In Chicago No. 2 red winter wheat is the 
contract grade. Where grain is sold or pur- 
chased by a broker, the brokerage is usually 
}i cent per bushel. 

HAY MARKETS 

At least twenty cities have adopted the 

rules of the National hay association as to 

classes and grades of hay and straw. The 

southern states constitute an important mar- 

226 



MARKETING 

ket for the hay of the north central states, 
while Boston, New York and the mining 
towns of Pennsylvania are important mar- 
kets for the northeastern states. The size 
of bale varies from 75 to 200 pounds. Small 
bales of 100 pounds each are preferred in 
Baltimore, medium bales of no to 140 
pounds in Philadelphia, while New York 
and Boston usually deal in the larger bales. 
The commission charges vary from 50 cents 
to $1 per car. In New York, $1 pays all 
charges. At Chicago, $3 per car has been 
charged for the inspection, divided equally 
between seller and buyer. 

PRODUCE MARKETS 

Every town of any consequence has its 
produce market. The South Water street 
district in Chicago and the West Washing- 
ton street market in New York are noted for 
their extent and variety. There are also 
many special markets for certain classes of 
produce. Thus Elgin, Chicago and New 
York have butter exchanges. Wisconsin, 
Utica, Watertown and Cuba (New York) 
227 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

maintain exchanges where cheese is placed 
on sale each week during the manufacturing 
season. There is also a board of trade for 
cheese in New York City. The prices 
quoted upon these exchanges are made the 
basis of many transactions between buyer 
and seller, who never enter these markets. 
Not only do buyers and sellers agree to 
abide by the quotations of one or the other of 
these markets, but the quotations are also 
used as a basis of settlement for milk fur- 
nished the creamery or factory. These 
agencies are thus impartial arbiters in count- 
less financial transactions. 

The rate of commission varies in differ- 
ent markets and for dififerent products. 
Generally, however, produce is handled on 
a 5% basis, but for individual products 
which are especially bulky and difficult to 
handle, such as cabbage, io% may be 
charged. In some cases commission is by 
quantity instead of on a percentage basis. 
Thus for potatoes the commission is some- 
times io% and in other cases 4 or 5 cents a 
bushel. 

228 



MARKETING 



LIVE STOCK MARKETS 



While poultry and game, as well as the 
carcasses of the smaller animals, may be 
handled through the produce markets, the 
large animals require separate facilities. 
The United States is noted for its large live 
stock markets and for the perfection and 
size of the packing houses which have 
grown up about them. The most famous 
example of these combined agencies is to 
be found at Chicago, but important live 
stock markets are also maintained at St. 
Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Pittsburgh, 
Buffalo and more recently Fort Worth, 
Texas. The commission charges vary from 
50 cents to $1 per head for cattle and from 
10 to 25 cents per head for calves, sheep and 
hogs. In some markets, the commission on 
hogs is 2% of the gross returns. When 
located within 150 miles of a central mar- 
ket, it is customary to allow 50 cents per 
hundred pounds for cattle and 40 cents for 
hogs to cover shrinkage, and cost of freight, 
yardage, food, bedding and commission. It 
229 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

is possible for an owner to sell his own live 
stock in these yards, but the commission 
man, because of his superior knowledge of 
existing trade conditions, is almost univer- 
sally employed. Firms which handle cat- 
tle, sheep and hogs seldom sell horses. 
Although handled by different commission 
firms, important horse markets are main- 
tained at Chicago and Buffalo immediately 
adjacent to the market for meat animals. In 
New York the horse markets are in a differ- 
ent section of the city, that for draft and 
common work horses on one street, while 
the American Horse Exchange, located at 
another point, handles high-class light 
horses. The usual custom is to sell horses 
at auction, although they may be purchased 
at private treaty. In whatever manner pur- 
chased, it is essential to understand precisely 
the character of the guarantee. 

COTTON, WOOL AND TOBACCO MARKETS 

Because of their higher value per pound 
and the ease with which they can be stored, 
cotton, wool and tobacco are dealt in some- 
230 




C. W. Zuck & Sons, Eiie, Pa. One son was a student in agriculture at 
the Pennsylvania State College. Father and three sons, beginning six years 
tgo with a run-down farin of 55 acres, have built an acre of glass and a 
heating plant of 260 horsepower. During the period they have spent $5,000 
on the place and at the end of season they will have very nearly cleared 
their improvements. "Tell the youthful readers of your book to get as much 
education as possible and then go in partnership with their fathers or 
brothers. If they do, success will be theirs." 



MARKETING 

what differently than other farm products. 
The two great cotton exchanges are located 
at New Orleans and New York, the quota- 
tions on these markets controlling the finan- 
cial transactions in cotton throughout the 
world. The principal wool markets are 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia and St. 
Louis. The principal tobacco markets are 
at Richmond and Danville, Va., Durham, 
N. C, and Louisville, Ky. 

The country shipper or the young farmer 
wishing to place his products in the ordinary 
channels of trade must consider and deter- 
mine among other things the following: 
What cities have favorable markets for his 
products; choose some commission man or 
broker to handle them; calculate the ex- 
penses for freight, commission and other 
customary items; familiarize himself with 
the rules for grading his products in the 
market or markets under consideration; and 
determine what agency there may be for 
protecting him as to the weight and quality 
when sales are effected. Whenever prac- 
ticable, a visit to the market in question and 

211 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

a personal study of the conditions under 
which selling is done will be wise. Having 
done so, and perhaps having made a num- 
ber of sales through these usual channels of 
trade, he will be in a position to consider 
whether he may organize to advantage some 
more direct method of getting his products 
to the consumer. 



2.12 



CHAPTER XX 

LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND 
LABOR 

THUS far property has been treated as 
invested capital upon which interest 
must be charged in determining the labor 
income. Labor, likewise, has been consid- 
ered principally in its effect upon profits. 
Society has thrown around the transfer of 
property and the use of labor certain 
restraints for the protection of all individ- 
uals. 

Through the ages certain procedures have 
become fixed by custom. These legal prac- 
tices are largely the inheritance of old 
Roman law and are usually known as com- 
mon law. Various legislative bodies hav- 
ing jurisdiction enact from time to time 
other laws. This body of enacted law is 
called statute law and is much more varia- 
ble than common law. In the briefest possi- 
ble manner it is the purpose here to state a 
few of the principles and applications of the 
233 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

law, chiefly the common law, as it affects the 
farmer in acquiring or disposing of his 
property and in his dealings with labor. 

PROPERTY 

Property may be defined as anything 
which is a subject of ownership. It possesses 
the characteristics of being acquired, held, 
sold, willed or inherited and is of two kinds : 
(i) Real property, real estate or realty; (2) 
chattels or personal property. These two 
kinds of property are subject to quite dis- 
tinct legal practices. In general, real estate 
consists of land, things attached to it, such as 
trees, buildings, fences and certain rights 
and profits arising out of or annexed to the 
land. The term land as ordinarily used in- 
cludes all these things, so that when land is 
said to be worth so much an acre it includes 
all fixtures. Ponds and streams are, under 
this definition, land. The land not only has 
surface dimensions, but extends upward 
indefinitely and down to the center of the 
earth, and hence includes a right to ores, 
coal, oil, gas or other materials whatsoever. 

234 



LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR 

An article may, however, be real property 
or personal property depending upon cir- 
cumstances. Thus a tree growing on the 
land is real property, but when cut into cord 
wood becomes personal property. New 
fence posts ready for use are personal prop- 
€Tty. When set in the ground they become 
real estate. Just what goes with a farm or 
what are fixtures is frequently a subject for 
legal determination. 

FIXTURES 

The general rule is that "fixtures are any 
chattels which have become substantially 
and permanently annexed to the land or to 
buildings or other things which are clearly 
a part of the land."* The annexation may, 
however, be purely theoretical, since the 
keys to the house or barn, which may be in 
the owner's pocket, are real estate. One 
rule concerning fixtures is that they must be 
so annexed that they cannot be severed with- 
out injuring the freehold. The intention of 
the party making the annexation also often 



*Haigh's "Manual of Law," p. 69. 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

determines, since if the article is annexed 
with the intention of making it permanent, 
it then becomes a part of the land. Among 
the things held to be fixtures, and therefore 
a part of the land, are: (i) All buildings 
and everything which is a part of any build- 
ing, such as doors, blinds, keys, etc.; (2) 
fence materials which have been once used 
and are piled up to be used again are a part 
of the land, but new fence material not yet 
used is personal property. (3) Growing 
crops are real property. They go to the pur- 
chaser of the land unless specially reserved 
in the deed. A verbal agreement is not 
sufficient. (4) Trees, if blown down or cut 
down and still lying where they fell, are 
real property; if cut or corded up for sale 
they become personal property. (5) All 
manure made on the farm is real estate and 
passes with the land. (6) All the ordinary 
portable machines and tools are considered 
personal property, but certain machines 
held to be of permanent use upon the land 
are real estate. Among the things which 
courts have held to go with the land are 
236 



LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR 

cotton gins, copper kettles encased in brick 
and mortar for cooking food for hogs, cider 
mills, pumps, water pipes bringing water 
from distant springs. In general, motive 
power machinery and the shafting go with 
the land, but the machinery impelled may or 
may not, depending upon the way it is an- 
nexed. (7) If stones have been quarried for 
the purpose of using upon the farm, they go 
with the farm, but if quarried for sale they 
are personal property. 

CONTRACTS 

The difference between personal prop- 
erty and real property may be indicated by 
considering the essential features of a con- 
tract. A contract is an agreement between 
two or more persons. The foundation rule 
concerning a contract is that every man must 
fulfill every agreement he makes. An ethi- 
cal practice grows out of this legal rule 
which, if strictly adhered to, will save much 
embarrassment, viz., make but few promises 
and always keep your engagements. 

There are seven requirements generally 

237 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

necessary to a valid contract, (i) Possibil- 
ity. The thing to be done must be possible. 
(2) Legality. It must not be forbidden by 
law. (3) Proper parties. The parties to a 
contract must be competent. Contracts 
with idiots or drunken persons are not bind- 
ing. Some contracts with minors are not 
binding, although contracts for the necessi- 
ties of life are. (4) Mutual assent. A 
proposition not assented to by both parties is 
not binding on either. (5) Valid consider- 
ation. A man is not regarded as injured by 
the breaking of a promise for which he has 
paid, or is to pay, nothing. (6) Fraud or 
deceit. A contract obtained by fraud is void 
as against the party using the fraud, but may 
be enforced by the innocent party if he sees 
fit. (7) Written contracts. Here comes the 
most important diflference between real and 
personal property. Real property can only 
be conveyed by a written instrument, prop- 
erly executed and recorded, while personal 
property passes by mere possession. Con- 
tracts relating to the sale of real estate are 
not binding unless in writing, while verbal 
238 



LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR 

contracts are sufficient for personal 
property if accompanied by payment of a 
part of the purchase price or the acceptance 
of the goods. For amounts under $50 ver- 
bal agreement in itself is binding. 

TRANSFER OF REAL ESTATE 

The purchaser should require of the 
seller evidence that the title to the land is 
straight and clear; if not, exactly what the 
defects are. This is done through an 
abstract of title, which should be prepared 
by a competent lawyer. This is not an offi- 
cial document, and its value depends largely 
upon the ability and watchfulness of the 
party making the abstract. Ownership of 
land is conveyed by means of a deed. A 
deed is an instrument conveying at least a 
life interest in the land. Care should be 
taken that the deed contains the essential 
parts and that it is properly executed. 

DEEDS 

Deeds are of two kinds : Quit claim deeds, 
which convey all the rights, title and inter- 

239 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

est which the seller has in the land, but does 
not warrant the title; and warranty deeds, 
which, in addition to what a quit claim 
does, contain covenants which agree that the 
seller and his heirs, etc., shall warrant and 
defend the title to the purchaser against the 
lawful claims of all persons. 

THE REQUISITES OF A DEED 

The requisites of a deed are: The parties 
to the deed, the consideration, the descrip- 
tion; and with a warranty deed, the cove- 
nants. The seller must be of full age, sound 
mind and if married his wife should always 
join in the deed. Her name should appear 
following his at the beginning of the instru- 
ment. She should sign and acknowledge the 
deed, and the certificate of acknowledgment 
should state that she is the wife of the seller. 
If the seller is a married woman, her hus- 
band does not need to join in the sale of her 
own property. It is customary to state the 
consideration upon which the deed is given, 
but this is not necessary, nor will a false 
240 



LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR 

Statement as to the amount paid invalidate 
the deed. 

The description of the land conveyed 
should be as minute and careful as possible, 
and preferably in the exact language of 
former deeds. In case former description 
is in error, it should be referred to and cor- 
rect description given. Where land is con- 
veyed by metes and bounds, this description 
governs, although it may not convey the 
number of acres of land stated. In describ- 
ing boundaries the location of monuments 
takes precedence of distances mentioned. 

EXECUTION OF THE DEED 

A deed must be signed, witnessed, 
acknowledged, delivered and recorded. In 
some states deeds must be sealed, but in 
other states the law has dispensed with this 
formality. Witnesses to deeds are not re- 
quired in all states. Some states require one, 
but usually two witnesses are required. The 
parties signing the deed are required to 
appear before an official designated by 
241 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Statute, usually any magistrate, justice or 
notary public, and acknowledge the same to 
be his or her free act and deed. 

A deed has no effect until delivered, and 
should be immediately recorded by the pur- 
chaser. Generally an unrecorded deed is 
not good as against a subsequent purchaser 
in good faith. It is well to note that the 
laws relating to the transfer of land are 
those of the place where the land lies and 
not necessarily those of the place where the 
deed is made. 

METHOD OF LAYING OUT PUBLIC LANDS 

The public lands of the United States are, 
whenever practicable, laid out into town- 
ships each six miles square, "as near as may 
be," whose sides run due north and south 
and east and west. The townships are laid 
off north and south of a base line which is 
a parallel of latitude, and are numbered 
north and south from the base line: Thus, 
T. 3 S., means Township No. 3 south from 
the base line. Each row of townships run- 
242 



LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR 



ning north and south is called a range, and 
is numbered east or west of the principal 
meridian: Thus, R. 2 E., means Range 2 
east of the given meridian. 

The townships are then laid off into sec- 
tions or square miles of 640 acres, "as near 
as may be," and these are numbered, begin- 
ning always at the northeast section, as 
shown in the accompanying diagram. 

N 



W 



e 


5 


4 


3 


2 


1 


7- 


8 


9 


10 


II 


12 


18 


17 


16 


15 


14 


13 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


30 


29 


28 


27 


26 


25 


31 


32 


33 


34 


35 


36 



Each quarter section is referred to as the 
northeast or southwest quarter of the section, 
and each forty acres as the northwest or 
southeast quarter of a particular quarter. 
For example, an eighty-acre field may be 
referred to as the west half of the southwest 

243 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

quarter of Section 3, Township 5 North, 

Range 3, west of . Base line 

and meridian, or in some cases merely the 
meridian is mentioned. 

The curvature of the earth's surface makes 
it impossible for the sides of townships 
to be truly north and south and at the same 
time six miles square. The excesses and the 
deficiencies due to the convergency of merid- 
ians and the curvature of the earth are by 
law added to or deducted from the western 
and northern ranges of sections and half 
sections of the townships. While the above 
has been the rule in laying out public lands 
for more than a century, there are many ex- 
ceptions, due to many causes. 

In the older settled sections the land was 
laid out in lots, often in a very irregular 
manner, although in some cases within a 
given tract the area was more or less regu- 
lar. In these cases, the land must be de- 
scribed minutely and carefully by metes and 
bounds. In some of the southern and west- 
ern states, also, where there were Spanish 
grants, much irregularity in the surveys 
244 



LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR 

exists. Over much of the north Central 
states this rectangular system of laying out 
lands obtains and has worked well in most 
respects. 

THE LANDLORD AND TENANT 

Leases of real estate follow the same pro- 
cedure as deeds, except that a verbal lease, 
if for a term of not to exceed one year, is 
valid in most states. A written lease should 
be carefully drawn, because, according to 
common law, there are few things implied 
in a lease that are not stated. Definite state- 
ment concerning repairs and insurance is 
desirable. A tenant should also acquaint 
himself with the law of the state concerning 
the surrender of the farm upon the expira- 
tion of his term. 

It is the duty of the tenant not only to 
guard the property, but to conduct the farm 
in a husbandlike manner. Unless otherwise 
stated in the contract, the tenant must pur- 
sue those methods of husbandry which are 
customary in the vicinity. 

245 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

THE RELATION OF THE FARMER TO HIS 
WORKMEN 

The requirements of a valid contract, as 
previously stated, control most of the rela- 
tions which the employer has with his em- 
ployees. Contracts for labor, unless for 
more than one year, need not be in writing. 
If, however, the service to be rendered is 
unusual, the agreement should be reduced to 
writing, because, in the absence of specific 
agreement, the law assumes that customary 
service and wages are implied. 

Like all other employers of labor the 
farmer is under obligation to protect his 
workman from injury. He must not sub- 
ject them to unusual and unreasonable risks. 
He must hire workmen suited to the em- 
ployment. For example, if he employs a 
young boy to drive a fractious horse, he 
would be liable for any injury that might 
occur. In like manner, he must exercise 
proper care concerning the safety of the 
machinery placed in the hands of his work- 
men. He must keep his premises in a safe 
246 



LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR 

condition and must not expose his workmen 
to risks not incident to the employment for 
which they are hired. 

The farmer is liable in damages for the 
acts of his workmen which are within the 
scope of their employment, although the 
authority may not have been expressly con- 
ferred. "He who acts by another acts him- 
self." In case one is sued for the acts of his 
employee, the burden is upon him to prove 
that the act of the workman was without 
authority, expressed or implied. 



247 



CHAPTER XXI 
RURAL LEGISLATION 

VARIOUS laws have been enacted by 
federal and state legislatures for the 
better protection of producer and consumer. 
Much of this legislation afifects in a very- 
special way the interests of the farmer. Not 
infrequently, in fact, generally, the state 
department of agriculture has more or less 
direct jurisdiction over their enforcement. 
State departments of agriculture usually 
publish a collection of the laws of this char- 
acter. These laws vary greatly in the differ- 
ent states and only the most general outline, 
as they affect the interests of the farmer, can 
be given here. Persons can inform them- 
selves as to the details as enforced in a given 
state by applying to the state secretarv of 
agriculture. 

A number of these acts affect interstate 

commerce, concerning which the United 

States Constitution says: "No state shall, 

without the consent of the Congress, lay any 

248 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

impost or duties on imports or exports, ex- 
cept what may be absolutely necessary for 
executing its inspection laws." By a series 
of judicial decisions it has been determined 
that a State has a right to enforce laws 
affecting interstate commerce when traffic 
in the articles thus modified or prohibited 
affects the public welfare. When it is neces- 
sary to have a police regulation to prevent 
fraud in the traffic of an article or for the 
purpose of guarding the public health or 
morals, police laws, so called, may be en- 
acted and enforced. Around this general 
question there has waged a bitter contro- 
versy which has occupied some of the best 
legal minds and is one involving some diffi- 
culty. 

FERTILIZER CONTROL 

One of the first of the "control" measures 
to be enacted, and the one which has been 
most universally adopted by the several 
states, is the law requiring the manufacturer 
and dealer in commercial fertilizers to guar- 
antee the percentage of the so-called essen- 
249 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

tial fertilizing elements — nitrogen, phos- 
phorus and potassium — contained in each 
bag of fertilizer offered for sale. Subse- 
quent control laws have been modeled more 
or less closely after this law. Hence a de- 
scription of the operation and execution of 
it will serve for all. 

The execution of this law is usually under 
the immediate supervision of the state sec- 
retary of agriculture, while the necessary 
chemical analyses are made by the state 
experiment station. In some states the en- 
forcement of the law is in charge of the state 
experiment station, while in others the state 
department of agriculture has its own labor- 
atories or employs a private chemist. It is, 
however, becoming a more and more settled 
policy to place all police regulations in 
charge of the state department of agricul- 
ture, while at the same time the chemical 
analyses and other scientific and technolog- 
ical inquiries are made at the state experi- 
ment station. 

In order to facilitate the taking of sam- 
ples and in order to raise funds for the 
250 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

execution of the law, the manufacturer is 
required to take out a license and to make a 
statement of the brands of fertilizers which 
he will place upon the market in the given 
state during the given season. 

During the spring and fall season agents 
traverse the state and sample the bags of 
fertilizers as found on sale by local mer- 
chants. The samples are sent by number 
under seal to the designated chemist, while 
at the same time the agent transmits to the 
state officer in charge of the enforcement of 
the law the necessary information concern- 
ing these samples. Upon the receipt of the 
analysis made by the chemist, who has had 
no knowledge of the origin of the sample, 
the state officer compares them with the 
guarantee of the manufacturer, and if he 
finds it necessary enters legal complaint. 
While these laws have been in force for 
many years in some states and in many states 
for some years, prosecution has seldom been 
found necessary. The honest manufacturer 
is protected from dishonest competition, and 
the dishonest manufacturer, if there be such, 
251 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

cannot afford the publicity which noncom- 
pliance with the law would entail. 

It has been customary to publish, with the 
results of analysis, also an estimate of the 
commercial value per ton of each brand of 
fertilizer. This estimated commercial value 
is obtained by multiplying the pounds of 
each element or combinations of the element 
in a ton by a value per pound. To the value 
of the fertilizer thus obtained is added some- 
thing for cost of mixing, bagging 
and freight, and something for profit. 
The price per pound given to each 
element or combinations of the elements 
is based upon the commercial value of 
the element when purchased in raw mate- 
rials. The price for each year is usually 
determined by a conference of those in con- 
trol of the execution of the law in the sev- 
eral states for certain groups of states. As 
a matter of fact, the price varies little from 
year to year. 

The published figures, therefore, consti- 
tute a table of comparative commercial 
values as determined by the most expert 
252 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

knowledge. While not constituting a state- 
ment of absolute commercial value for any 
given locality, they do enable the purchaser 
to determine v^hether the price quoted on a 
given brand of fertilizer is within reason. 
Persons who are unacquainted with the 
principles controlling the use of commercial 
fertilizers may, however, be led to believe 
that the price of the fertilizer is an indica- 
tion of its value for the production of a 
given crop. As is well known to all stu- 
dents of the subject, there is no necessary 
relation between the commercial value of a 
fertilizer and the fitness of its formula for 
a given soil and crop. For these and other 
reasons, the publication of tables of com- 
mercial value has been strongly opposed by 
some manufacturers, and in certain states 
the custom has been discontinued. While 
granting that tables of commercial value are 
subject to misinterpretation, it is perhaps 
fair to say that such tables have been of most 
benefit, and, moreover, have been of great 
value to those who were most likely to mis- 
interpret them. 

253 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

It has been customary in most states to 
make analyses only of mixed fertilizers. 
Thus such raw materials as nitrate of soda, 
sulphate of ammonia, dried blood, bone 
meal, rock phosphate, tankage, muriate of 
potash, sulphate of potash, have not been 
brought under the operation of the law. If 
one wishes to purchase nitrate of soda, 
muriate of potash and tankage with the in- 
tention of mixing them according to a 
formula of his own, he may not find any 
protection in his state. However, these pro- 
ducts can be obtained through reputable 
dealers who will willingly guarantee the 
contents. In case of doubt, the purchaser 
may secure an analysis by his state experi- 
ment station at a moderate cost. 

The law requires that there shall be 
affixed to every package of fertilizer offered 
for sale a statement about as follows : 

The minimum per centum of each of the following 
constituents which may be contained therein: 

(a) Nitrogen. 

(b) Soluble, available and total phosphoric acid, 
except in cases of undissolved bone, basic slag phosphate, 

254 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

wood ashes, unheated phosphate rock, garbage tankage 
and pulverized natural manures, when the minimum 
per centum of total phosphoric acid may be substituted. 
This latter applies only in those states where raw mate- 
rials are subject to inspection. 

(c) Potash soluble in distilled water. 

It is possible to comply with the law and 
yet state the guarantee upon each bag of 
fertilizer in such a manner as to mislead the 
uninformed. It is not the purpose of this 
book to deal with such technical details, but 
if the purchaser of commercial fertilizers is 
not already well acquainted with fertilizer 
terms, he should secure an elementary text- 
book on the subject or write to his state ex- 
periment station for a bulletin discussing 
them. 

FEEDING STUFF CONTROL 

The law controlling the sale of stock foods 
is of more recent origin than the fertilizer 
control act and has not been so universally 
adopted up to the present time. The neces- 
sity for such a law arises from the growing 
use as stock foods of various by-products in 

255 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

the manufacture of liquors, starch, glucose, 
sugar, cottonseed and linseed oils and break- 
fast foods. Various mixtures, varying 
widely in chemical composition, especially 
in protein and crude fiber, were placed upon 
the market. In some instances mixtures 
were grossly adulterated with such things 
as oat hulls and ground corn cobs. 

The adoption of this law by certain states 
has served to make other states the dumping 
ground for inferior stock foods, thus 
increasing the necessity for similar protec- 
tion. The law does not apply to the ordi- 
nary grains produced by farmers or to the 
usual by-products of millers. 

SEED CONTROL 

From time immemorial it has been the 
universal custom of seedsmen to disclaim all 
responsibility for the purity and germinat- 
ing power of their seeds. But as the impor- 
tance of good seed — good in hereditary 
power, good in germination, good in its free- 
dom from adulteration, good in its absence 
of noxious weed seed — has become better 
256 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

understood demand for some method of con- 
trol has arisen. In at least one state there is 
a seed-control law modeled quite closely 
after the fertilizer-control law. However, 
the usual method of protection consists in 
purchasing by sample or the insistence of a 
guarantee, with a subsequent "analysis" of 
a sample of the purchased seed. 

The germinating power and purity of 
seed can be determined cheaply by an ex- 
pert within from five to twenty days, de- 
pending upon the species. The federal gov- 
ernment has a division of seed control in its 
Department of Agriculture at Washington, 
D. C. Any person may send a sample of seed 
to this division and have its purity and 
germinating power determined, and in some 
of the states the experiment station will 
perform similar services without charge. 
Clover, alfalfa, grass and other small seeds 
should always be purchased subject to such 
inspection, unless the purchaser is prepared 
to make his own inspection, which a very- 
little training makes possible. 
257 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

NURSERY INSPECTION 

There is no national law concerning the 
importation of insect-infested or diseased 
plant stock. 

Several of the states have passed both 
state and interstate regulations concerning 
the sale of nursery stock. The insects usu- 
ally legislated against are San Jose scale, 
gypsy moth and brown-tail moth, while the 
diseases usually interdicted are yellows, 
black knot, peach rosette, and pear blight. 

The enforcement of the law is usually 
placed in charge of a person having special 
knowledge of economic insects and fungous 
diseases. In addition to these police regula- 
tions this officer may, by various means, 
attempt to bring into practice methods cal- 
culated to eradicate or, at least, lessen the 
severity of existing attacks. 

Commerce in vinegar, dried fruits, insec- 
ticides and fungicides is also regulated in 
some states. 

DAIRY, FOOD AND DRUG INSPECTION 
An adequate discussion of the rise and 

258 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

development of the control in the sale of 
dairy and food products would require a 
chapter by itself, if not an entire volume. 
Suffice it to say here that the laws on this 
general subject have acquired an impor- 
tance in many ways quite beyond that of any 
of the other control measures discussed in 
this chapter. In the extent of funds handled, 
the number of agents employed and the pub- 
lic interest incited, the office of dairy and 
food commissioner outranks any other con- 
trol agency. In some states the office is an 
elective one, and the questions with which 
the office has to deal become a part of the 
state political campaign. 

The importance of the inspection of dairy 
and food products grows out of the fact that 
not only is the consumer, hence all the 
world, interested, but the execution of these 
laws touch large commercial interests. Not 
only are meat packers, distillers and brew- 
ers deeply interested, but the wholesale and 
retail grocers and, more recently, the man- 
ufacturing and prescribing druggists, are 
vitally concerned. 

259 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

Not many years ago the inspection of 
dairy products, particularly control of the 
traffic in oleomargarine, was the chief func- 
tion of this office. To-day the enforcement 
of laws concerning pure foods, liquor and 
drugs is of much greater importance. 

Interstate commerce in oleomargarine is 
now regulated through the enactment of an 
internal revenue law requiring a tax of ten 
cents a pound on colored oleomar- 
garine and one-fourth of a cent a pound 
on uncolored oleomargarine and, fur- 
ther, by prescribing the character of 
package and method of marking all oleo- 
margarine entering into interstate com- 
merce. State agencies are charged with the 
duty of requiring the compliance of local 
dealers and restaurateurs with the general 
features of the federal law. Some states, 
however, prohibit entirely the sale of col- 
ored oleomargarine within the state. 

PURITY IN DAIRY PRODUCTS 

Attempts to define what is pure milk, 
cream, butter or cheese have been fraught 
260 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

with much difficulty. Thus, for example, 
legal definitions of pure milk have resulted 
in some cows giving illegal milk. In some 
instances the law has declared simply that 
whole milk is milk from which no cream 
has been removed; in others, the minimum 
amount of butter fat has been prescribed ; in 
still others, the minimum amount of total 
solids containing a minimum proportion of 
butter fat has been made the basis of legal 
milk. In like manner full cream cheese 
has been defined as cheese made from whole 
milk or from milk from which only a given 
amount of cream has been removed, while 
in other instances the minimum amount of 
butter fat which full cream cheese may con- 
tain is prescribed. The wide variation in 
the amount of butter fat carried by cream 
has caused much jocular comment and some 
serious discussion as to what is cream. 

While it is not feasible to indicate the 
laws for the several states, the ruling of the 
federal government as to what constitutes 
purity in dairy products under the national 
food and drug act may be accepted as a gen- 
261 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

eral guide. A circular giving the required 
information may be secured by addressing 
the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C. 

LIVE STOCK SANITATION 

The control of contagious diseases in 
domestic animals and the inspection of meat 
products have been the chief work of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry of the United 
States Department of Agriculture since its 
establishment. 

The bureau inspects all Imported live ani- 
mals and under certain conditions will 
inspect live animals intended for exporta- 
tion. It inspects all meat products intended 
for export. Its inspection of meats Intended 
for interstate commerce is less rigid than 
that exported. Meats sold within the state 
in which they are slaughtered cannot be 
required by the federal government to un- 
dergo inspection. It thus happens that the 
people of the several states enjoy less pro- 
tection in the consumption of meat than the 
foreign purchaser of American meats unless 
262 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

there is a state meat inspection law. How- 
ever, it is becoming more and more the 
custom for the large packers to have all 
their products inspected without regard to 
their destination. The meats slaughtered in 
the locality in which they are consumed are 
the ones that receive the least supervision. 

The federal government has been espe- 
cially active and efficient in the prevention 
of interstate commerce in cattle suffering 
with Texas fever, and sheep attacked with 
scab and foot rot. Through the agency of 
the bureau dipping tanks have been pro- 
vided in all the great live stock markets for 
the disinfection of cattle and sheep when 
needed. 

Several of the states have laws controlling 
the importation of diseased animals from 
other states and the transfer of them within 
the state. The following are the diseases 
most commonly mentioned in the laws of the 
several states: Anthrax, black quarter, hog 
cholera, swine plague, rabies, glanders and 
tuberculosis. The law is generally enforced 
by a state veterinarian, whose acts are super- 
263 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

vised either by a state live stock commission 
or the state secretary of agriculture or these 
two agencies acting conjointly. 

Perhaps the disease which has required 
the greatest amount of attention in the sev- 
eral states is tuberculosis in milch cows. It 
is customary for this office to apply the 
tuberculin test, free of charge, under cer- 
tain stipulations, to any herd upon the 
request of the owner and to supervise the 
slaughter and disposition of the reacting 
animals. In some states the owner is indem- 
nified in part or in whole for his loss. The 
amount of indemnity as well as the general 
features of the law concerning the control 
of tuberculosis in domestic animals has been 
the subject of much controversy and cannot 
be said to have reached an altogether satis- 
factory solution in most states. 

The young farmer should clearly under- 
stand that under no circumstances can he 
afford to have a tuberculous animal in his 
herd. The contact of a diseased animal 
with other animals of the herd is certain to 
entail a greater loss than the destruction of 
264 



RURAL LEGISLATION 

the diseased animal. The farmer must in 
his own interest rear healthy animals 
whether or not it is necessary for the protec- 
tion of the consumer. 

FISH AND GAME LAWS 

The motives underlying the enactment of 
laws concerning fish and game are varied. 
The controversies over these laws in the leg- 
islatures of the several states indicate that 
there is a belief, whatever may be the fact, 
that there are opposing interests; viz., those 
of the hunter or sportsman on the one hand, 
and those of the farmer or landowner on the 
other. The law of trespass has been one 
over which has raged much bitterness, both 
with regard to the form of the law to be 
enacted and concerning its subsequent en- 
forcement. Sportsmen have usually held 
that a distinction existed between wild ani- 
mals occupying private property and 
domestic animals. The landowner has 
urged that others should not trespass upon 
his property for the purpose of shooting 
265 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

wild animals, although his proprietary right 
in them was no greater. 

In like manner, laws concerning the 
closed season, made to protect animals dur- 
ing the breeding period, are the subject of 
extended discussion and are being con- 
stantly changed; both because there is a 
difference of opinion concerning the habits 
of the different species and because the mo- 
tive varies for maintaining the supply. Some 
animals are protected on account of their 
benefit, supposed or real, to agriculture. 
Other animals are protected because of 
their gaming qualities, even to the extent 
of sometimes injuring farm crops. The 
money spent by sportsmen in the pursuit 
of game is an element in the varied inter- 
ests involved. Humane motives and a 
desire to prevent the further restriction of a 
not too varied fauna have helped, also, to 
save certain species from extinction. On 
the other hand, in some states commercial 
interests are involved, as where large quan- 
tities of birds are taken for their plumage. 

Some attempts have been made to intro- 
266 



RURAL LEGISLATION 



duce foreign species, as the Japanese pheas- 
ant. It is, however, with fish that the most 
has been accomplished in replenishment. 
The federal government and several of the 
states have been active in regularly restock- 
ing, each season, certain streams with "fry" 
of edible and game fish. 

Information concerning the open season 
can be obtained from the proper state 
officer. The fish and game laws are usually 
under the control of a commission with a 
secretary as the executive officer. 



267 



CHAPTER XXII 
RURAL FORCES 

THE United States is a vast domain. Its 
material resources are enormous. Its 
fertile and easily tilled soil, its magnificent 
forests, its great stores of ore, coal, oil and 
gas; its fine water-power sites and its tem- 
perate and healthful climate have all con- 
tributed to the making of a prosperous and 
progressive nation. Without these natural 
resources the United States could not be 
what it is. 

The waste of some of these resources is 
almost beyond belief. In mining, one-half 
the anthracite and one-third the soft coal is 
left in the ground in such a manner that it 
may never be economically recovered. A 
ton of coal will produce 1,400 pounds of 
coke, worth $1.50, and 20 pounds of sul- 
phate of ammonia, worth 50 cents. If all 
the nitrogen in coal which is turned into 
coke in Pennsylvania were recovered, it 
would furnish enough of this element to 
268 



RURAL FORCES 

supply the needs of every acre of tillable 
soil in that state. Only about 44% of the 
wood in the trees now harvested in the 
United States is incorporated into buildings, 
apparatus and furniture. The rest is wasted 
in the process of cutting, sawing and manu- 
facturing into the finished products. 

Facts like these have led the nation to 
realize that the conservation of our natural 
resources is an immediate and pressing 
problem. The United States has, however, 
a greater inheritance than these great and 
beneficent gifts of nature and a more funda- 
mental problem than the preservation and 
efficient use of them. In a single sentence, 
the greatest inheritance of the American 
people is their Puritan ancestry. The word 
Puritan is here used to apply not only to the 
New England Pilgrims, but to all our early 
forefathers, whose traditions and practices 
have served to set this country apart from 
the other countries of the world. Because 
of the traditions which have been handed 
down to us, we are healthier-bodied and 
cleaner-minded men and women. We are 
269 



?^ 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

more efficient, not merely in making money, 
but in everything that goes to make a full 
and well-rounded life. 

It is well to realize the resources of other 
nations. The agricultural possibilities of 
France appear to the casual observer to com- 
pare favorably with any equal area in the 
United States. One may see farm land in 
Italy which has been cultivated for at least 
two thousand years which is evidently as 
fertile as any of the limestone valleys of the 
Atlantic States, the prairies of the Missis- 
sippi valley or the Palouse district of the 
Northwest. Russia has enormous areas of 
fertile soil. Careful observers report that 
in Manchuria there are great stretches of 
country, which today possess natural oppor- 
tunities similar to those which the Missis- 
sippi valley offered one hundred years ago. 
The recent stories of the deposits of coal and 
mineral wealth in China are almost fabu- 
lous. Europe has rich mines, great forests 
and unrivaled water-power. 

Some years ago a native of Argentina and 
a native of the United States were dining 
270 



RURAL FORCES 

together. The Argentinian had served his 
government as consul to Canada. He 
related that he had recently written an offi- 
cial letter in which he had occasion to refer 
to the people of Canada and to those of 
this country. He explained that in allud- 
ing to the former he could say the Cana- 
dians, but the latter he could not call Amer- 
icans, since his people were also Americans. 
After due consideration he referred to us as 
"the Yankees." "But," turning to his 
hearer, he said, with great emphasis. "I do 
not look upon the people of the United 
States as a nation, but as a new civilization." 
In other words, our nation is not simply one 
of fertile farms, enormous mines, great for- 
ests, unparalleled railroad systems, palatial 
stores, or wealthy cities, but he saw that we 
are a people of diflferent economic, political, 
educational, social, moral and religious 
ideals. 

. There are in every rural neighborhood 

certain forces whose objects are to increase 

the educational advantages, the social 

opportunities and the moral aspirations of 

271 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

the people. This subject need not be dis~ 
cussed merely in the abstract. There are 
in every community concrete evidences of 
these forces. There is the rural church. 
There is the rural school. In many locali- 
ties are to be found, also, buildings, for 
social and fraternal purposes, as grange 
halls, structures for holding fairs and pic- 
nics. These are tangible evidences that 
there are rural agencies at work in the com- 
munity whose chief purpose is to increase 
the educational advantages, the social 
opportunities and the moral aspirations of 
the people. 

How are these existing rural forces to be 
made more effective? If co-operation in 
financial affairs is essential under modern 
conditions, it is more needed in social mat- 
ters. Such co-operation does not imply that 
these separate forces shall be fused into a 
single one. Each of them has its particular 
and peculiar work to do, but each should 
work in harmony and not in the spirit of 
antagonism with the others. 

There should be formed in each locality 
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RURAL FORCES 

a committee for which the following name 
is proposed: The Community Committee of 
Rural Forces. Emphasis should be placed 
upon the word "community." Like all 
moral movements, progress must come from 
within, and not from without. The move- 
ment must be adapted to its environment. 
Like the plants that grow there, it must be 
indigenous to the soil. 

This committee should be composed of 
representatives of the churches, the schools, 
farmers' clubs, granges, fair associations, 
farmers' institutes; and other organizations 
which are striving to increase the educa- 
tional advantages, the social opportunities 
and the moral aspirations of the people. 

Oftentimes the object of these rural forces 
is confused with efforts to increase the finan- 
cial prosperity of the farmer. It goes with- 
out saying that the maintenance of the 
fertility of the soil is essential to the food 
supply of the nation. The problems of the 
economic production of plants and animals 
are of great importance to the prosperity of 
the farmer. The idea, however, that the 
273 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

proper solution of these economic problems 
is to be the means of solving the educational, 
social and religious problems is simply- 
putting the cart before the horse. Economic 
questions can only be satisfactorily adjusted 
through the application of intelligence and 
right ideas. 

Let it be supposed that when a young man 
decides to pay attention to a young woman 
that instead of meeting her at the church 
door, or it may be at the railway station, it is 
considered better form for him to get per- 
mission of the mother to call upon the 
young woman in her own home. This is the 
most fundamental question in every neigh- 
borhood. What has it to do with the price 
of wheat? 

This illustration has been used to empha- 
size two points. First, there are many prob- 
lems in every community that are in no way 
related to the material prosperity of the 
neighborhood. Second, there is, at present, 
no single force in the community with suffi- 
cient influence to cope properly with many 
of these problems. 

274 



RURAL FORCES 

A young college graduate who is now 
managing eight hundred acres of land 
recently wrote : "I firmly believe that one of 
the best opportunities to be of help to a rural 
community lies in the work that is to be 
done for the improvement of social condi- 
tions — to help make what little leisure there 
is clean and refreshing." Hence on return 
from college this young man has found 
time to play football and baseball with local 
teams and to help whenever opportunity 
offered at dances, musicales and similar en- 
tertainments. Games and other forms of 
recreation may be clean and wholesome, or 
they may be quite the reverse. It would be 
the duty of the community committee to see 
that dances occurred under proper environ- 
ment — not next an open saloon — and that 
the young women were properly chap- 
eroned. 

In many communities the boys and girls 
are almost wholly dependent upon the 
neighboring towns for their amusement. 
This condition may or may not be desirable. 
If the town and country are virtually one 

275 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

community, there Is every reason why the 
boys and girls from the farms should find 
recreation and social intercourse with the 
boys and girls of the village. It is a rela- 
tionship that should be fostered wherever 
possible. When, however, the town and 
the country are separate communities, which 
prevent the ordinary social relationships, it 
is usually unfortunate when the young peo- 
ple of the one community are dependent 
upon the other community for their amuse- 
ments. 

A deeply earnest man recently said: "1 
was born and raised upon the farm. I never 
knew a dull day in my life. I went fishing. 
I went hunting and " 

"Stop right there," said the listener. 
"There is not the same opportunity today 
for a boy to go hunting that there was when 
you were a boy." 

"That is true." 

"Our ideas about such things have 
changed, also." 

"Yes," he replied, humbly enough, for he 
was a man of fine fiber. 
276 



RURAL FORCES 

"I propose a substitute," said the listener. 
"There is much more pleasure and recrea- 
tion to be obtained from photographing ani- 
mals than from killing them. What is 
needed in every rural community is a 
camera club." 

When a boy wishes to go hunting, he 
merely has to buckle on his ammunition 
pouch, shoulder his gun and he is ready. A 
camera club, however, requires a social 
organization and a social center. The com- 
munity committee would thus be required 
to decide whether the facilities for develop- 
ing and printing pictures may best be 
located at the church, the schoolhouse, the 
grange hall or elsewhere. 

A little reflection will show how many 
possibilities such a club might have on its 
social, moral and educational side. The 
suggestion has been made here, however, 
only as an illustration of the problems which 
arise when a rural community is organized 
for social welfare. The organization of a 
book club, or a magazine club in a rural 
community presents precisely the same 
277 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

problems. Some method must be devised 
for exchanging the books or magazines. 
Whether they are exchanged at the church, 
the grange hall or through the school chil- 
dren will depend upon local conditions 
requiring a community committee to decide. 

This community committee will do some- 
thing more than reach immediate results. 
It may project its influence far into the 
future. Not all of life is comprised in a 
porcelain bathtub and nickel adornments. 
Nevertheless modern methods of heating 
and plumbing are desirable in the country 
as well as in the city. In Indiana there is 
a one-room school building. In the base- 
ment there has been placed a furnace and 
a gasoline engine. The engine is used not 
only to teach the boys how to run a gasoline 
engine, but it makes possible a modern sys- 
tem of plumbing. 

It is well known that many of the states 
within the past decade have voted to abolish 
or very materially restrict the sale of alco- 
holic beverages. No great temperance ora- 
tors have roused the people as was the case 
278 



RURAL FORCES 

thirty years or more ago. Why, then, has 
such progress been made in recent years? 
In large part because twenty-five years ago, 
the teaching of physiology was introduced 
into the public schools, which taught the 
evil effects of alcohol to the human system. 
During the past decade young men w^ho 
studied these physiologies have been voting. 

What has the teaching of physiology to 
do with the one-room schoolhouse in In- 
diana with its modern system of plumbing? 
The girls between the ages of six and four- 
teen are now becoming accustomed to mod- 
ern systems of plumbing. When they grow 
older and marry they will find some way to 
introduce similar conveniences into their 
homes without regard to the price of wheat. 
A wise community committee will find 
many ways to influence future generations. 
Such a committee would be a priceless 
heritage to any community. 

The natural resources of the United 

States are necessary to the prosperity of the 

people. The preservation and economic 

use of these resources are of vast importance. 

279 



THE YOUNG FARMER 

The natural resources of the world were, 
however, as great five thousand years ago 
as they are today. The soil was no less fer- 
tile then than now. The difference between 
the prosperity of the human race at these 
two periods is caused by a difference in 
human motive and efficiency. It is the result 
of ideals and knowledge. Sit at the banquet 
table with men who are the real powers in 
shaping the affairs of the world. The 
chances are that the champagne remains un- 
touched. These men are not in the habit of 
partaking of midnight suppers. They must 
keep themselves fit for the next day's work. 
They have the approval and loyalty of their 
wives because they deserve it. In other 
words, the men who do the world's work are 
not drunkards. They are not gluttons. They 
are not libertines. They are efficient 
because they have healthy bodies and clean 
minds. It is this efficiency which the critic 
from Argentina saw when he said, "I do not 
look upon the people of the United States 
as a nation, but as a new civilization." 



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By Alfred Vivian. There is no subject of more vital 
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The Study of Corn 

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By Clarence A. Shamel. This book covers fully the 
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Farmer's Cyclopedia 
ofAgriculture 



A Compendium of Agricultural Science and Prac- 
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Feeding and Diseases of Farm Animals 

:Bjr EARLEY VERNON WILCOX, Ph. D. 
and CLARENCE BEAMAN SMITH. M. S. 

Associate Editors in the Office of Experiment Stations, United States 
Department of Agriculture 



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